Strength versus Compassion
by L-chan the Great
Summary: Unlike his brother, Ludwig wasn't content with just being on the police force.  He wanted something more.  He just didn't know what exactly.  It definitely didn't help when a clumsy guy knocked him off the path, both literally and figuratively. Pokemon AU
1. Chapter 1

**Uwah, sorry for starting yet another story before finishing all the others! This has just been bouncing around my head for some time, and I wanted to share it with you all, since I was granted a break from life for the day! I even smashed chapters 1 and 2 together for you, so I don't have two really short chapters!**

**So, now we begin the story of our very own Ludwig Beilschmidt, as he begins his Pokemon journey!**

**Just a little warning, I am trying to reconcile this with "reality", so the fighting will be a little less... nice than what it is in the show. Ludwig will probably seem a little darker at first. I hope you enjoy!**

**Also, at the beginning of each "section" will be a little memo concerning the main characters and their current party and the levels of their pokemon. I'm trying to keep this as similar to the games as possible without making it like a game, if that makes sense...**

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><p><em>Luddy,<em>

_ What's up, little bruder? Happy birthday! You're already 17, huh? Man, the time sure flies! I can't believe that I haven't seen you or gramps in two years. I tell you, this Police Academy sure is tough! Of course, your awesome bro owned them all!_

_ I hear gramps is finally letting you go off on your own adventure. Lucky! I had to wait until I was 18 before I joined the Police Academy. At least my training is finally complete. You're related to one of the defenders of peace of Kanto!_

_ Man, that sounds so cool!_

_ Anyway, good luck with your journey! Keep safe. When you have the time, stop by Celadon and visit me. Can't wait to see how much you've grown these past 2 years! Make me proud!_

_ Say 'hallo' to gramps for me, 'kay? See you soon!_

_Your most awesome big bruder,_

_Gil_

Ludwig sighed. Despite the brevity of the note, Gilbert still managed to fill the paper with an overwhelming amount of hubris. And he called Ludwig 'Luddy' _again_, no matter how many times the younger brother begged him not to.

Still, it was always nice to get a letter from Gilbert, especially since it had been a couple years since they last met. For a birthday letter, it was rather nice, and he intended to make Gilbert just as proud as he told Ludwig to make him.

There was a knock on his bedroom door, making Ludwig look up from the paper. "Ludwig, it's almost time," his grandfather said through the door. "Although I doubt that carefree idiot will even be there for another hour," the man added in an annoyed murmur, unaware that Ludwig could hear him clearly.

"Ja, Großvater. Just one minute," he called back.

He dropped the letter onto his small night-table, next to his immaculately tidy bed. The sheets were pressed and tucked so tightly that it was a wonder that anyone had been underneath them until just a couple hours ago. That was the way Ludwig liked his bed to look, as clean as the rest of his room. In fact, it bothered him greatly when even a single book was misplaced. It was almost an obsession, according to Gilbert, whose room was always a disaster, littered with beer cans and dirty magazines.

Ludwig turned to his mirror to inspect his appearance. He knew that once his journey got going, he wouldn't be able to keep up his tidy image, but it was the least he could do to start out that way. His blond hair was slicked back, his blue eyes sharp and ready. He wore practical clothes—jeans and a long black shirt.

Satisfied, he scooped up his backpack and left the room after one final look into the place that he would not see for a very long time. He went downstairs, where his grandfather was busy at the stove. Ludwig's mouth watered as the smell of wurst filled the air. That was another thing he wouldn't have for a very long time.

His grandfather turned to look at him, his blue eyes strikingly similar to Ludwig's, and just as serious. The old man's long blond hair was tied back, and he wore a ridiculously frilly pink apron (a gift from his long-time friend, Professor Vargas). Ludwig had to force back a chuckle at the sight.

"Be careful, ja?" he said. It wasn't as apparent at first, but Ludwig could detect the slightest furrow of his grandfather's eyebrows in worry.

Ludwig nodded, with a small, reassuring smile. "I'll be fine. You taught me and bruder well," he replied.

That made his grandfather smile a bit. "Ja, you've grown up very strong, just like your father. So has Gilbert, although I believe it has gotten to his head a tad," he said.

Ludwig couldn't suppress a chuckle this time. That was the understatement of the year. He looked up at the clock. It was five minutes until he was supposed to show up at the lab. Ludwig was a punctual man.

"I have to go now. Bye, Großvater. Please take care," Ludwig said.

His grandfather didn't say anything in response, only held out some wurst wrapped in a paper towel. When Ludwig took the food gratefully, he gave the boy a terse nod.

"Take care, my boy."

Ludwig smiled at the man who had taken care of him and Gilbert since they were toddlers. "Danke, I will."

It was with mixed feelings that Ludwig left that house. He looked up at the humble, two-story building as the door shut behind him. Ever since he could remember, he had lived in this house, in the quiet village of Pallet Town. As fond as he was of his home, Ludwig had always felt the pressing need to go out and explore, admiring the strong spirit of his older brother as Gilbert daringly snuck out of the village, wrestling with the petty pokémon just outside the town. Ludwig had lost count of the amount of times Gilbert wound up coming home, scratched and bruised, but grinning wildly. Their grandfather was furious every time Gilbert did so, giving both boys a lecture about the importance of having a pokémon to keep them safe.

That didn't stop Gilbert from sneaking out, however.

Ludwig sighed and turned away from the house. No use in reminiscing now, before he even started his journey. It would only depress him and make him doubt himself. So he stood erect, his chin thrust forward, and made his way to Professor Vargas's lab.

"Hallo, I'm here, Professor Vargas," Ludwig greeted as he opened the door.

He was immediately hit by a wave of sound that made him take a step back. All types of pokémon cries assaulted his ears, mixed with human shouts. What the hell was going on in there?

"Hurry! Come in and close the door before they all get out!" one of Professor Vargas's female assistants cried.

Ludwig shuffled into the chaotic lab, just in time to stop a pidgey from making its escape. He held the bird away from him as it began to wiggle around in his grasp, pecking at every inch of available skin. Taking quick, purposeful strides, he pushed the tiny pokémon into one of the many empty, open cages in the lab.

It appeared that somehow, the pokémon kept in the lab had escaped their cages, and were now running amok in the research facility. The various assistants dashed about frantically, some with nets, trying to capture all the pokémon. Papers were scattered over the floor and books were knocked from their shelves and trampled by the escapees.

Ludwig joined the efforts to recapture the pokémon, and gradually they were all returned to their proper cages. Then he helped return the research notes to their respective places, although he couldn't do much about the damaged pieces.

An older man, Professor Vargas, sighed in relief. "Ah man, I thought all our research would be destroyed for sure. Grazie, Luddy~!" he said, laughing carelessly.

Ludwig groaned. Yes, Professor Vargas was a great man, famous for his research on pokémon, but he was a bit of an idiot. And he called him 'Luddy', like Gilbert did.

"Ja, ja, no problem, but how did all the pokémon break out of their cages anyway?" he asked, looking around the now-clean building.

The question made Professor Vargas laugh nervously. He ran a hand through his messy brown hair, failing in his half-hearted attempt at smoothing down the various kinks. "Well, I accidentally fell asleep while studying the anatomy of rattata, and I suppose I kinda hit the 'Open all Cages' button," he admitted.

Ludwig gave the man a blank stare. Weren't people supposed to get wiser with age? Professor Vargas single-handedly destroyed that stereotype. "Why do you have a button like that?" he asked.

The professor shrugged. "Just in case I ever decide to free all the pokémon at once. I don't want to have to go to every individual cage and open them one-by-one," he said.

The reason was so irresponsible, so idiotic, and so _unlikely_ that Ludwig was momentarily struck speechless. He couldn't believe a world-renowned scientist would make such a stupid device that he'd probably never use.

Professor Vargas took advantage of Ludwig's inability to speak. He gave another nervous laugh and changed the subject. "So, you're here for a pokémon, right?"

Ludwig gratefully went along with the switch. He nodded, setting his jaw in steely determination. "Ja."

The two went into the back room, where the professor kept the pokémon that were ready to be given to new trainers from Pallet Town. Professor Vargas quickly explained each of the pokémon while he led Ludwig to a container holding three red-and-white capsules.

"Right now, I have three pokémon. You may choose any one of them. This one…" He pulled out the spherical capsule with a leaf marking. "…is called a bulbasaur. He is a grass type. You won't have any trouble raising him. And this one…" Putting the ball back, he pulled out one with a flame-shaped marking. "…is a charmander. She is a fire type. I'd be careful if you choose this one. She's got quite a temper, which will only get worse as she grows and evolves, but I think you should be able to handle her." He placed the ball back and pulled out the final one, with a blue teardrop marking. "This one is a squirtle, a water type. It's difficult to pin down his personality. One minute, he's mischievous and making all kinds of trouble, and the next he's taking care of the other pokémon." The professor shrugged, putting the ball back with the others.

"Anyway, go ahead and choose the one you want. I'm not worried about you raising whichever to their full potential, if you're your father's kid."

Ludwig flushed a bit, proud to be called his father's son, even if he had never known the man. He looked over the capsules with a critical eye. This was the first decision of his pokémon journey, and he refused to make it a bad one.

Finally, he chose the charmander. He picked up the ball. It felt warm, as if the creature inside was actually radiating heat strong enough to affect the capsule. His breath caught in awe. So this capsule—this tiny, insignificant capsule—contained a creature capable of melting rock with its fiery breath.

"Excellent choice! Just like your brother. He chose a fire type as well, a growlithe, just like most of those on the Police Force have," Professor Vargas said.

He handed Ludwig a handful of minimized, empty capsules, and a red device that Ludwig recognized as a pokémon encyclopedia—a pokédex. Ludwig took them gratefully.

"Good luck on your journey. Oh, and if you see my grandson, make sure to tell them to come visit their old man!" Professor Vargas said.

Ludwig blinked in surprise and confusion. "Grandson? I didn't know you had a grandson," he said. He hadn't even known that the professor had a child at all, although with the man's womanizing ways, it made a lot of sense.

Professor Vargas smiled dazedly. "Oh yes, two of them! They are just so adorable, but they live so far away~! I wish they would come visit me sometimes~!" he gushed.

It was probably time for Ludwig to make his leave, with the way the professor was beginning to look. He had experienced doting parents before, and it was always annoying to listen to them go on and on about how cute their kid was, even if the kid in question was unpleasant and not as special as their parents thought they were.

Backing up quietly, Ludwig snuck out before Professor Vargas realized he was talking to thin air.

* * *

><p><strong>Ludwig's Party:<strong>

**Charmander, Lvl. 5**

Ludwig had barely taken a single step out of the town, his pack slung over one shoulder, when a dark blur suddenly rushed at him. He gave a shout of surprise, jumping back and swinging his foot hard at his assailant. It connected, and the thing flew away from him, hitting the neatly placed fence that blocked the pokémon-infested path from the town's farming fields (not that it was very effective).

The tiny creature, a rattata, cried out in pain as it hit the barrier, dropping hard to the ground. Ludwig stared at it, mildly surprised, but mostly annoyed.

"Do you things have anything better to do than attack random people?" he grumbled to himself, reaching for the pokéball attached to his waist.

He needn't have bothered. As soon as the purple rat-type pokémon collected its wits, it turned tail and dashed off under a gap in the fence, streaking across the fields of corn and wheat.

Now Ludwig didn't know what to do. On the one hand, the thing was gone now, out of his hair. It wasn't his problem now. But, on the other hand, it had gone into the farm fields, the ones that provided the town with three quarters of its sustenance. He really should go after it.

Sighing, he unhooked the capsule from his belt loop and pressed the release button. Unlike other trainers, he didn't understand the point of some battle cry declaring that you are about to send out a pokémon. It just didn't make sense. So he let charmander out of her ball silently, without a loud shout that would probably scare the annoying little creature away.

The orange lizard shook herself when she set foot onto the dirt road. She looked at him—his knees, really—then looked up into his eyes with a questioning look that somehow conveyed a lofty attitude.

"We're going into those fields after a rattata. Don't burn the crops," he instructed, keeping his expression hard.

Smoke furled out of the charmander's nose as she huffed out. Without even a noise of confirmation, she turned and squeezed under the gap, wiggling her larger body through the hole with some difficulty.

When the fiery end of her tail disappeared to the other side, Ludwig hopped over the fence.

His pokémon was already halfway across the field, crouched low in pursuit of her target. Ludwig smiled slightly, satisfied that the charmander obeyed at least his first command of their partnership. He lightly padded after her, careful to keep his steps light as he stole across the field.

"Char!" his charmander suddenly cried. Then, like a hunter's dog, she took off toward the fence.

Ludwig picked up his pace. He didn't bother trying to stay quiet now. Obviously his pokémon had already found the offending rattata and was now making chase.

They ran about the fields like that for some time, until he finally caught up to the charmander, where she stood over a cowering rattata like a guard over his prisoner. It was backed up into the corner, periodically scratching at the wood as if trying to dig a hole to freedom.

Ludwig nodded, happy with his charmander's work. "Good work, girl," he said. The charmander only huffed in response, as if informing him that rounding up rattata was beneath her.

He ignored her proud attitude, inspecting the trembling pokémon instead. "What should we do with this annoying little thing? Just drop it over the fence like it is?" he asked, looking down at her.

She obviously didn't like the plan. She fixed him, her amber eyes narrowed in contempt. He sighed.

"Ja, I suppose you're right. It'll just get into the fields again in no time. Hmm…" He paused to think. Then his lips spread out in a slow smile. "Then you'll just have to knock it senseless, so when it regains consciousness, it'll think twice about coming into the fields."

Somehow, the charmander seemed to smile. In any case, her eyes lit up in approval. She turned to the helpless creature; claws extended, and lunged forward before it had time to attempt an escape.

She made quick work of the rattata, stepping away once it fainted. Ludwig stepped forward and picked it up by the scruff of its neck. The head lolled about as he dropped it over the edge of the fence. It fell to the other side with a thud.

"Good work, let's continue on then," Ludwig said, returned the charmander to her pokéball.

He spun on his heel, marching back through the fields. Just as he was about to hop back over the fence, something in the corner of his eye caught his attention.

He turned to see a pidgey among the tomato plants. Strangely, it picked the tomatoes carefully, pulling at the stems instead of devouring it right off the plant like most birds did. Even more strangely, it put the tomatoes into a basket. A _basket_ for crying out loud.

"Hey! Get away from those!" he shouted, beginning to run at the pidgey.

It looked up at him with a frightened glance. Before he had a chance to release his charmander, the creature hopped onto the basket handle. With surprising speed and strength for a tiny bird, it took to the air with the tomatoes. All too quickly, the thing was gone, too far away for him to do anything about it.

Ludwig stared at the retreating dot in the sky for a long while, his hand still resting on his charmander's pokéball. That was the strangest thing he had ever seen in his life, even stranger that Gilbert.

Something told him that his adventure would be anything but boring.

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><p><strong>Well, there it is! Like I said in every one of my stories before, don't expect regular updates. I'm still crazily busy with school and such, but fortunately after this week, things should be slowing down.<strong>

**Also, to those of you who followed my story "Love is Never Forgotten" to the end, I'm working on a little epilogue that will hopefully tie up some loose ends.**

**Anyway, ciao~!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Ah, this two-in-one-day update reminds me of the summer, when I had all the time in the world to do this. But this was almost done when I put chapter one up, ahaha.**

**Um, there will be a bit of cursing. Just one word every chapter or so, probably. I don't want to use it too much. But, I like I said, this is life.**

**I debated putting the different nationalities in here, with the pokemon universe, but then I figured the other countries still exist, even if this takes place in the Kanto region of Japan. So I did.**

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><p><strong>Ludwig's Party:<strong>

**Charmander, Lvl. 7**

**Pidgey: Lvl. 3**

The Viridian Forest. The trees loomed high overhead, the thick green canopy allowing the barest minimum light through to the forest floor. There was even a sort of unnerving silence draped over the place; a sharp contrast to Viridian City that lay behind him.

Viridian City was a nice city, and Ludwig was happy to explore it for a while. His grandfather had taken him and Gilbert there several times before, using repellant to keep the pokémon away. In his old age, Ludwig's grandfather wasn't much of the trainer he used to be.

The mart was the same as always, with the same people wandering the few shelves of the store, only a little older. Some of them recognized Ludwig and stopped to chat a bit. Many remarked on the similarities between Ludwig and his grandfather, from their appearances to personalities. He listened politely to anyone who bothered to talk to him, although he probably wasn't very good conversation.

He had stayed the night at the Pokémon Center there. His charmander wasn't hurt, but night was approaching fast by the time he began to grow bored of the peaceful buzz of life. The next morning, he went west of the town.

A man stopped him as he started up the path. "Hello, there, are you a trainer?" he said pleasantly.

Ludwig looked the man up and down. It was a large, shorter man with a bald head, save for two tufts of white hair on either side of his head. "Ja, I am," he confirmed quietly, his hand hovering over charmander's pokéball.

The man noticed the way Ludwig tensed up. He stepped back. "Oh, no no, I'm not a trainer!" he said, waving his hands disarmingly. "I was just asking if _you _were, is all!"

He regarded the man with suspicion. "What's it to you?" he asked.

"Well, have you collected all eight badges by now?" the man asked.

Ludwig shook his head. "No. I've just started," he replied.

The man nodded. "I thought so. You're probably lost. West of Viridian City is Victory Road, and you can't get in without all eight badges."

Ludwig remained silent, digesting this information. He looked up the path, over the mountains. Somewhere past the twisting roads was the Elite Four, the ultimate challenge for a trainer.

"Now that you mention it, I remember my grandfather telling me that the Elite Four resided very close to Viridian City," Ludwig said thoughtfully after a long pause.

The man nodded again. "Well, you should try going north instead. That way is Viridian Forest, and Pewter City is just beyond that."

Ludwig nodded. "Thank you very much, sir," he said gratefully.

"No problem. You should probably get a Town Map if you're wandering around Kanto. It'll help a lot."

"Will do," Ludwig told him, now eager to leave the man's company and get going. He wasn't inclined to spend the night in any kind of forest.

"Good. Well then…" The man began to turn around, but then stopped. "Wait, if you're a new trainer, then I don't suppose you know how to catch pokémon, do you?"

Ludwig's eye twitched. Did this man think he was stupid or something? Catching a pokémon was the easiest thing in the world to do. "I know how to catch a pokémon," he said, barely masking his annoyance.

The man looked surprised. "Oh, you do? Well, I could have shown you how, but if you _really_ don't want my help…" He still didn't sound too convinced.

Sighing heavily, Ludwig looked around. He spotted a pidgey a little ways off, pecking at the grass. "Watch, I'll show you."

He reached into his bag and pulled out a pokéball and his pokédex. The latter told him that the pokémon was weak, only level three. No need to weaken it further. He enlarged the empty capsule and threw it. Just as he expected, the pidgey didn't put up much of a fight. A couple shakes and the pokéball sealed.

"See? I'm fine," Ludwig said after he had retrieved the pokéball.

The man nodded, looking disappointed. "I see then, I'll be off. Bye." And with that, he slunk off.

Which led up to Ludwig standing at the entrance gate to the Viridian Forest with a weak little pidgey in a capsule attached to his belt. The whole affair had been frustrating. First some man comes around acting like he was stupid, and then he wasted a pokéball on some weak bird pokémon. Furthermore, the Viridian City gym had been closed down when he went to check it out.

"Unacceptable," he muttered to himself as he entered the building where people could rest before striking off into the formidable forest.

He paused to buy a Town Map from the man working at the little souvenir stand, along with a postcard. There was a peaceful picture of Viridian City on it. He wrote a short note to his grandfather.

_Großvater,_

_ I realize that it is a little early for me to be writing, since I just left yesterday, but I thought you may enjoy the picture of this postcard. I chose a charmander as my partner, and I also have a pidgey now. I hope things are going well at home._

_ Also, the fencing around one of the fields is broken. There is a fairly large gap at the bottom. I saw a pidgey stealing tomatoes as well._

_Most sincerely,_

_Ludwig_

Ludwig dropped the postcard into the mailbox. These entrance buildings were rather convenient, with various items for passing trainers, although there weren't nearly as many items as in a Pokémart.

Not wanting to waste any more time, he left, entering the dark gloom of the Viridian Forest.

It was too quiet for his tastes. His throat felt tight, making him doubt his ability to talk in this silent place. Yet, even with the oppressive silence, there was a high pitched buzz of bug pokémon in the background that got on his nerves. Ludwig walked quickly, wanting to get out of this horrible place as quickly as possible.

"Hey, you!" someone called out.

Ludwig looked over to see a small boy pushing his way out of the tall grass. He wore shorts that were much too small and a hat that was much too big. In his hands he held an overly large net, and at his waist was a fanny pack.

"What is it?" he asked, not in the mood to deal with anyone else for a long time.

"You're a trainer, right? I challenge you to a battle!" the boy said. He couldn't have been more than ten.

Ludwig lips stretched into a too-wide smile, his eyes excited. "I accept your challenge," he said, taking the first ball off of his belt. His charmander's pokéball.

The boy unzipped the fanny pack and shoved his hand inside. He pulled out a pokéball and threw it. "Go, Caterpie!" he cried.

Ludwig rolled his eyes. This boy was too loud for a quiet forest. He released his charmander without a word. She whipped her tail, the flames at the end coming dangerously close to the plants.

"Watch it. We're in a forest," Ludwig commanded. She gave him a flat look, not amused by the obvious statement he made.

"Caterpie, string shot!" the boy cried out.

The charmander turned just in time to leap out of the way as the sticky webbing flew at her. She landed on her feet, claws digging into the dirt.

"Good, scratch it," Ludwig said.

She rushed forward to do as Ludwig commanded. The caterpie jumped (or at least, it jumped as well as a bug with tiny feet could jump), and tried to move out of the way. It was too slow as the charmander's claws hit it directly, cutting deep.

"Come on, you've got this!" the boy cried out to his pokémon.

The boy's shout's seemed to amuse the fire-type. She didn't give the caterpie time to react, and continued hitting it again and again, until the little thing couldn't even attempt to escape her merciless attacks.

When the boy saw this, he gasped. "Drat! Return, Caterpie!" he cried, recalling his pokémon back into its ball. "Let's try you, Weedle!"

Ludwig saw, with annoyance, that the boy had chosen another pokémon. Apparently, he was too young to realize that they were on two very different levels. No matter. His charmander could always use the experience.

"Scratch this one, too, but try not to get yourself poisoned," he told her.

"Char!" she confirmed, the tone of that single syllable trembling with the absolute excitement the charmander felt.

The charmander threw herself into a short scuffle with the weedle. She scratched furiously at the pokémon and jumped away to avoid the poisonous sting, then rushed back in. Once, the stinger stuck her skin, but thankfully the weedle didn't inject enough to poison her. After that, it wasn't long before the weedle was knocked out, just like the caterpie.

"Uwaah, you jerk! Those were my precious pokémon!" the boy shouted after he'd recalled the weedle.

Ludwig shrugged, returning his own pokémon to her capsule. "Then you shouldn't challenge other trainers," he said simply.

"Jerk, jerk, jerk!" the boy shouted at him. He stopped suddenly when Ludwig held an open palm out to him. "Wh-what is it?"

"Prize money. That is the custom, is it not?" Ludwig pointed out.

The boy flushed a bright red from indignation. Obviously, he hadn't thought it was possible for him to lose. Which was silly, since _everyone_ lost once in a while.

"Fine! Here's your stupid money!" he shouted, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a fistful of paper bills. He shoved it into Ludwig's waiting hands. "I hope a swarm of beedrill ruins your adventure!"

Ludwig ignored him as the boy ran off, back into the tall grass. Instead, he busied himself with counting the money he had received. It only amounted to 100 poké.

He huffed in frustration. That was only enough money to cover the postcard he bought before coming into the forest. Definitely not worth the trouble of fighting the boy.

With a growing sense of annoyance, Ludwig hastily pocketed the money, too frustrated to properly fold and tuck it away, and recalled his charmander. With a quick look at the map, he set off in the way that he felt was north.

He walked for what felt like hours, without even running into any strong pokémon, although that was probably because they were all bugs and weak bird pokémon, and his charmander was strong. Still, with the amount of minor battles he engaged in, his charmander grew strong enough to use a fire move, albeit a weak ember. Still, it was better than a lizard that could only scratch and wag its tail.

After a while more of walking, Ludwig finally sat down to rest. He leaned back against the trunk of one of the many trees bordering the winding path he was following. His stomach growled in complaint, so he took out a bit of bread that he had stored in his bag. Nibbling at the bread, he leaned his head back and listened to the buzz of the forest, content.

Until the buzzing got louder, that is. At first, he ignored it, but as the volume steadily increased, almost indiscernibly, a high-pitched scream was added to the noise. And it was getting closer to him.

Ludwig opened his eyes, almost lazily, unwilling to move.

Not too far away, and rapidly approaching, was a huge swarm of beedrill, obviously angry and thirsting for revenge. Not too far ahead was a young man with a boyish appearance (if short-shorts and a sailor outfit were anything to go by) was running for his life, barely three strides in front of the beedrill. It was from him that the scream came from.

Ludwig leapt to his feet, alarmed. His charmander was strong, but there was no way she could take on an entire swarm of beedrill. He was about to run down the path when the stranger saw him.

"Hey! Stranger! Save meeeeeeee!" he screamed, picking up his pace. Ludwig didn't even have time to react before the man—a shorter brunette—launched himself at Ludwig, wrapping his arms around the German's neck.

Ludwig stumbled backward, nearly falling into the clump of bushes. "Scheiße! Let go of me!" he yelled, trying to pry the man's arms off of him.

It was no use, and the stranger held tight. "Save me! Save me! Save me!" he screamed into Ludwig's ear, making his head throb in pain.

With no more time to waste (the swarm getting closer every second), Ludwig turned away from the path and crashed through the foliage, zigzagging as well as he could with the thick growth and a man hanging around his neck. It worked somewhat, as he managed to increase the distance between him and the attacking beedrill.

Still, he needed to stop soon. He couldn't run forever, and he was sure that the beedrill all had plenty more stamina than he did.

The stranger didn't seem to be trying to come up with some kind of plan, wasting his time instead with burying his face in Ludwig's chest and whimpering. If the brunette's grip wasn't so inhumanly strong, he'd drop the man and run off on his own.

Fortune smiled on him, and Ludwig spotted a small pond. It was probably rather shallow, and none too clean as far as pond water went, but it would have to do. He just needed some water to get their bodies under so the swarm would go off somewhere else instead of bothering them.

So he adjusted his hold on the stranger, took a deep breath, and threw himself and the man into the murky water.

* * *

><p><strong>Ludwig just can't catch a break, huh? Hehehe.<strong>

**Anyway, ciao~!**


	3. Chapter 3

**I started the Nuzlocke challenge on my HG game. I had one on Black, but I misplaced the game. Too bad, since there's so much more variety in that game… Oh well! I'm happy now with my Diell (Cyndaquil), Miu (Rattata), Kita (Caterpie), Kaya (Geodude) and Uccelo (Pidgey). I hope I don't lose any of them!**

**Rather short chapter. I'll make the next longer for sure!**

* * *

><p><strong>Ludwig's Party:<strong>

**Charmander, Lvl. 9**

**Pidgey: Lvl. 3**

Ludwig had been right about the shallowness of the pond. He had to press the two of them down against the muddy bottom, so that no part of their body would be exposed to the deadly barrage of stingers. The man who had forced him to dive in wasn't helping any. As soon as the brunette felt the water close over his mouth and nose, he began to panic. He thrashed about, trying to get back to the surface and losing all the air in his lungs immediately as a result. It was all Ludwig to do to keep him still.

After what felt like ages of struggling with the man, Ludwig finally heard the dreadfully loud buzz of beedrill die away. He sat up quickly, hauling the man out with him.

The smaller man sputtered and coughed, gasping for breath. He wiped the dirty water from his eyes. "Ve, that was really scary. I thought I was going to drown for sure~" he said, strangely cheerful for a man who just had two back-to-back near-death experiences.

Ludwig brushed his sopping wet hair away from his forehead, doing his best to slick it back. He tried not to think about the algae and dirt that he could feel clinging to his hair. "I was more concerned about those beedrill that you set after me," he said with a deliberately accusing tone, making it apparent that this was all this man's fault.

For whatever reason, the man didn't appear to pick up on his obviously accusing tone. "Ve, that too! Thank you so much for saving me, sir~!" he exclaimed, smiling brightly.

Ludwig sighed. It wasn't worth trying to beat him down, when this man seemed like such a wimp. "Ja, ja, whatever," he said, standing up to leave.

The man looked up at him, alarmed. "Wait, you're not just going to leave me here, are you? What if they come back?" he asked, grabbing onto Ludwig's wrist.

"Then just hide in this pond again!" Ludwig said, trying and failing to wrench his wrist away.

"No way! Take me with you! Per favore!" he cried, clinging tight.

"You're not coming with me. I don't even know who you are!" Ludwig protested, now trying to pry off the iron grip that this man had on him. This stranger was surprisingly strong for such a scrawny man.

"Ve, I'm Feliciano. Feliciano Vargas. Now you know me so we're friends!" he said.

Ludwig groaned. "That's not how it works! Wait…" He stopped his futile attempts to pull away. "Did you say 'Vargas'? As in, the pokémon professor, Marcus Vargas?" He recalled the professor saying something about having grandsons.

The man, Feliciano, brightened. "Ve, you know my nonno? That's great! So we're like family friends now!" he said.

He sighed, grabbing Feliciano's arm and pulling him to his feet. "I guess you can say something like that. If you're that man's son, I suppose I can't just leave you hear," Ludwig said, resigned.

Feliciano jumped to his feet. "Yay~! Let's go, let's go! This place is really creepy!" he said in that same cheerful voice. He went ahead of Ludwig, tugging him along.

After a few steps, he stopped. He turned to look at Ludwig with a questioning look. "Ve… By the way, I told you my name, but you didn't tell me yours," he said.

"Ludwig Beilschmidt," he replied.

The Italian's eyes widened. "Ve, really? My nonno told me all about this guy named Ludovicus Beilschmidt, and how he was all serious and kinda boring, but is really a nice guy! Ludwig kinda sounds like Ludovicus, too~! But that's kinda hard to say, so I'm going to call you Luddy, ok?"

Ludwig sighed heavily, pressing his fingers to his temple. He could feel a headache coming on from Feliciano's ceaseless speaking. No wonder the beedrill attacked him. "I'm not Ludovicus, he's my grandfather," he replied, speaking slowly to make sure the man understood him.

For some strange reason that Ludwig could not even begin to comprehend, this revelation made Feliciano even more excited. "Oh, so our grandfathers were friends! That's so amazing~! And now we met here, so it's like we were meant to be friends all along!"

"Can we get back to the path now? I want to get out of these wet clothes," Ludwig deadpanned.

His new companion's smile didn't dim any. If anything, it brightened to a blinding state, so that Ludwig couldn't even _look _at Feliciano any longer. "Si~! Let's go~!"

Seriously, what was _wrong _with this guy?

Thus the two set off in the direction Ludwig's thought they came from. His soaked clothes stuck to him, as well as the various algae and muck from the pond. He gritted his teeth, hating to feel dirty more than he hated to feel wet. Feliciano didn't seem to mind as much at all, humming as they walked for what felt like hours, never once relinquishing his grip on Ludwig's hand.

As it turned out, Ludwig's gut misled them, which he only discovered after walking about the dark forest for hours, walking in circles. They had doubled back to the same pond at least four times since they'd first left it, or at least a different pond that looked exactly like it. Yet, no matter how much they walked, they never made it back to a path, or any semblance of one.

Needless to say, Ludwig felt extremely annoyed and frustrated. It didn't help that they were continuously attacked by random bugs. Although he dispatched of them mercilessly with his charmander, Feliciano squealed in fright and jumped behind Ludwig whenever it happened. Every. Single. Time.

Finally, Feliciano's squeaks and screams and hums and squeals got the better of him.

"Will you shut up?" he snapped irritably, causing his jumpy companion to shrink back in shock, yet still not letting go of his hand.

"Ve, I'm sorry, Ludwig, I'm sorry. Don't hurt me please. You know my grandfather, you know, so it will be really sad if you hurt me, and I want to become good friends with you, because you seem really nice, but if you hurt me, that won't be very nice, so I'll be wrong then," Feliciano babbled.

Ludwig cut him off, not in the mood to hear his voice. "Whatever, let's just get out of this damn forest." Feliciano nodded and shut up.

They walked for a while longer in silence. Soon, the forest seemed to get even darker, and the various pokémon sounds grew louder and more oppressive, as if the two were literally surrounded by pokémon lying in wait to ambush them. It was night.

As the last bit of light drained away, leaving them in virtual blackness, Feliciano spoke again. "L—Ludwig, it's getting really dark," he said, although that was obvious enough by now.

Ludwig rubbed his head, sighing. "I suppose we'll have to sleep in the forest tonight," he said, even though he really didn't want to stay here longer than he had to. There wasn't much point in wandering blindly through the nighttime forest.

Feliciano shivered. "Sounds scary, ve," he whispered, scooting uncomfortable close to Ludwig.

The more sensible man shook his head. "I'll have my charmander make a fire. Then we can dry off and keep the pokémon away at the same time," he said.

Between the two of them, they collected a sufficient amount of firewood. Ludwig made a quick fire pit and released his charmander. She ignited the branches, and soon they had a decent-sized blaze.

Feliciano was ecstatic. "Ve, it's so warm~!" he sang, as if he hadn't been out of the forest in weeks (which, from what Ludwig knew of the Italian's family, could very well be the case). He leaned in dangerously close to the fire, and Ludwig grabbed the back of his shirt to pull him back, afraid he'd accidentally fall in.

"Ja, I don't know how we'll ever get out of here, though," Ludwig said, sitting close to the fire.

Now that they had a source of warmth, Feliciano didn't seem too concerned with their predicament anymore. He was unbuttoning his damp shirt, shrugging it off. "Oh, when Uccelo gets back, she'll be able to lead us out of here~!" he said brightly.

Ludwig furrowed his eyebrows. "Who's 'Uccelo'? Hey! What are you doing!" he exclaimed as he realized that Feliciano was taking his clothes off.

Feliciano gave Ludwig a puzzled look, trying his best to wiggle out of his pants as well. "I'm taking off my clothes of course. Because they're wet. You should take yours off, too," he advised.

Embarrassed by the situation, Ludwig looked away. "No, I'm fine." He was much too modest to show his body in front of another man as Feliciano seemed able to. "J—just tell me who your friend is."

As he laid his clothes by the fire, Feliciano brightened again. "Oh, Uccelo! That's my pidgey! He's really smart and helps me when I get lost and brings me tomatoes and all kinds of things to make pasta with! He's really cute and nice, too, and protects me from the scary pokémon!" he gushed excitedly.

Ludwig regretted asking. He lay down close enough to the fire that his clothes would hopefully dry overnight. Feliciano pulled a blanket from his bag—a water-proof one that Ludwig hadn't noticed until now—and snuggled down under it.

"Buona notte, Ludwig~!" Feliciano said with a yawn.

He gave him a puzzled look. Of all the random Italian words he'd picked up from Professor Vargas, 'buona notte' was not one of them. "What?"

Feliciano blinked, giving Ludwig an equally puzzled look, as if unable to believe that Ludwig hadn't understood him. Then he smiled warmly. "It means 'good night'. You don't know Italian, Luddy?" he asked.

Ludwig's eye twitched. "Why would I know Italian? I'm German," he pointed out irritably. "And don't call me that."

Feliciano ignored his demand in favor of laughing in that sunny way of his. "Ve, that's great~! I can teach it to you now~! It'll be a lot of fun, and you can help me out when the strong, scary pokémon attack me, and teach me German, too! I'm so glad that you're my friend, Luddy~!"

The only response that he received was an impatient sigh, so he quickly forged onward. "It means 'good night'. 'Buona' is good and 'notte' is night. Buona notte, amico! That's 'friend'."

Even though Ludwig hadn't had any intention of learning so much Italian, he nodded and committed the words to memory. "Good night, Feliciano," he said. Then, as an afterthought, he added, "Gute nacht."

In the light of the fire, Feliciano's eyes glowed with a warmth of their own. "Grazie, Luddy, for teaching me. See you in the morning," and he shut his eyes and promptly fell asleep.

Ludwig watched his new companion—his new friend, he supposed—with some curiosity. The way his chest slowly, regularly, rose and fell with each breath told him that he was truly asleep. That struck Ludwig with a sense of wonderment. As far as he knew, it was impossible to do that so quickly.

With these thoughts on Feliciano occupying his mind, Ludwig closed his eyes as well, comforted by the sounds of the night.


	4. Chapter 4

** Sorry it's been so long, folks~! Busy, ya know? Hahaha. Anyway, I'm still doing the Nuzlocke challenge, after a hiatus from it. Two new members to my party—Rochelle, my Sandshrew, and Petal, my Bellsprout, but I'm afraid the latter may actually be male. Whoops…**

* * *

><p><strong>Ludwig's Party:<strong>

**Charmander, lvl 10**

**Pidgey, lvl 3**

The next morning, Ludwig knew something was wrong before he even opened his eyes.

No it wasn't the sounds of the forest. The loud buzz of insect and various other types of pokémon was nothing unusual, from what he could tell after only a day in this forest. It wasn't even the fact that he had been here an entire _day_ already (honestly, he was pretty sure that if it weren't for his new "friend", he'd have cleared the forest already).

Nope, not even the fact that a pidgey had its beak shoved right up in his face was the real problem here.

Wait, a pidgey?

Ludwig's eyes snapped open to meet the beady black eyes of a tiny bird pokémon not even two inches away. He sat up with a shout, throwing his shoe at the pidgey. It simply hopped out of the way, giving him a cold glance, as if condescending of the startled trainer.

"Wh—what the hell?" he exclaimed, readying his arm to throw his other shoe.

"V—ve? Ludwig, what's wrong?" the _real_ problem asked, sitting up from his spot next to Ludwig.

Yes, Feliciano had been the real problem, until just now. It wasn't so much the wimpy man's presence, as it was the fact that Ludwig had awoken with the Italian right next to him, having slipped underneath the blanket sometime during the night. _Naked_.

The German trainer returned his attention to Feliciano. He jumped up, backing as far away from the younger man as possible without stepping into the ashes of their fire pit. "Y—you! Why are you sleeping next to me?" he demanded, an embarrassed flush coloring his cheeks.

Feliciano tilted his head, giving Ludwig a puzzled stare. "Ve, well the nighttime sounds got really scary, so I decided to sleep next to you, because you're bigger and stronger, and things aren't as scary when you sleep next to someone who is bigger and stronger than you," he explained, not seeing the problem of two men sleeping side-by-side, one of them naked.

"That's not what I meant!" Ludwig shouted, but Feliciano was no longer listening.

The Italian had turned his attention to the pidgey, who was now perched on a rock. "Uccello~! Ve, you're back~!" Feliciano cried happily. "And you brought lots of tomatoes~!"

It was now that Ludwig noticed that the bird pokémon was standing next to a basket, filled to the brim with tomatoes. It must have been a heavy burden for such a small pokémon. The pidgey probably had abnormally high stats.

Like the one he had chased off from the tomato fields back in Pallet Town.

"Hey! You're that thieving bird! You stole tomatoes from my home town!" Ludwig pointed an accusing finger at the pidgey. He reached for his charmander's pokéball.

Feliciano threw himself in between them. "Ve, wait wait!" he exclaimed, sounding frightened. "I'm sure Uccello didn't mean to steal. He's only a little bambino!"

Ludwig glared, unclipping the ball from his discarded belt. "This is your thief of a pidgey?" he asked scathingly.

The Italian looked up at him fearfully. He affirmed Ludwig's suspicions with a shaky nod. "S—sí, but…"

He didn't give Feliciano a chance to finish. "Go, charmander," he commanded, releasing his pokémon.

By now, Feliciano was trembling uncontrollably. "Wait! I didn't want Uccello to steal! I only wanted tomatoes!" he cried, cringing away from the larger man.

"That doesn't make it right, does it?" Ludwig asked coldly, crossing his arms. He began to command his charmander to burn the sniveling thief.

"I'll pay for the tomatoes, I swear! Please don't hurt me! My nonno lives in Pallet Town, too, and I don't want to hurt the town he lives in because he's my family, and you're my new friend, and you live there, too, so I'll pay for every tomato, just please don't hurt me! Per favore!" he cried.

It was rather pathetic to see a naked man groveling for his life in the dirt. Mostly disturbing though. In the end, Ludwig decided to forget the punishment, and told his charmander to stand down.

"Fine, I'll let it go this one time. On one condition, though."

Feliciano's eyes lit up. "Sí, anything!" he agreed, nodding vigorously.

"Put some clothes on, already."

The Italian slowly looked down at himself, and gradually, a look of realization spread over his face.

"Ve, oh yeah." He gave Ludwig a vague smile, as if his state of undress didn't actually bother him too much. "Ok then, Luddy. I will."

Ludwig turned around to his charmander, who was staring curiously at the naked man. Obviously, she hadn't seen too much of the human anatomy, if any at all. He coughed to get her attention. She gave him a cold glare, unimpressed, and ignored him in favor of watching Feliciano dress. He groaned.

Feliciano darted around to the front of Ludwig, smiling. "Ve, ok I'm done now~!" he announced needlessly.

He was wearing the same clothes from yesterday, albeit dry now. Ludwig nodded. "Ja, I see that."

Unperturbed by Ludwig's tone, Feliciano stretched his arms high above his head, rubbing the sore muscles from the night of sleeping on the uncomfortable forest floor. "Ve, anyway, now that Uccello is back, we can get out of this scary place!" he announced.

Ludwig gave Feliciano a flat look. "That would be nice, but we're still lost," he pointed out in a dead tone.

The smile on the carefree man's face didn't diminish any. In fact, if anything, it widened. "Not anymore with Uccello~!"

Feliciano laughed when Ludwig's eyebrows furrowed with confusion. "My pidgey always helps me when I get lost! He can fly _hiiiiiigh_ above the trees, and lead us out of the forest~!" he explained, spreading his arms wide.

Ludwig gave the pidgey—Uccello—a distrustful glance. The pidgey only stared back at him with that condescending gaze. With this bird, as his own pokémon, it seemed like every creature he'd meet would think itself better than him. "I don't know about that…" he said doubtfully.

The Italian laughed again, a light-hearted sound that only served to increase Ludwig's annoyance. Being lost in the Viridian Forest, covered in dried mud and grim and his own filth was not much of a laughing matter.

"Well, at this point we don't have much to lose, sí?"

As much as Ludwig hated to admit it… Feliciano _did _have a point. He sighed in resignation. "Ja, very well, let's go then," he said thickly. He still didn't like the idea of depending on the thieving pidgey for his salvation, but right then it was either that or take his chances in the forest. Compared to the latter option, allying himself with a criminal bird seemed like no big deal.

Feliciano was delighted with the affirmative response. He spun around to Uccello, who surprisingly sprang to attention. "Ve, alrighty then~! Let's go, Uccello~!" he sang happily.

The pidgey abandoned his perch and basket to spring into the air, following his trainer's command. In the blink of an eye, Uccello broke through the canopy, causing leaves and twigs to rain down on the two trainers.

Before Ludwig could say anything, the bird pokémon had reappeared, flying straight off in one direction. Laughing brightly, Feliciano sprinted after Uccello, leaping over the low bushes and tree roots. Ludwig returned his charmander to her pokéball and followed, quickly catching up to Feliciano.

Uccello flew as fast as he did when he escaped Ludwig just a couple days ago, if not faster since the burden of the tomato-filled basket was alleviated (now swinging along in Feliciano's grasp). Yet, even as fast as the pidgey flew, and even with the various obstacles expected in a forest obstructing the path of the two humans, Uccello always stayed within sight of Feliciano and Ludwig.

After they'd been running for a couple minutes, Ludwig noticed that the trees were beginning to thin out, and their unpaved path became less rugged and easier to travel. They were almost out of the forest. Feliciano noticed this too, and he looked back at Ludwig.

The smile froze on this face and a shiver ran over him, the movement obvious even as the Italian ran. Feliciano turned forward with a shrill shriek of fright, and began running impossibly fast, leaving Ludwig behind in the dust.

Startled by Feliciano's actions, Ludwig looked over his shoulder, expecting to see another swarm of beedrill, or a pack of savage pikachu, or even a lone caterpie climbing harmlessly up a tree. There were none of these things, however, just open forest. Ludwig looked back at the trail of dust that marked the way Feliciano had gone. The man was a dot on the horizon by now, but his pidgey had remained close to Ludwig.

Ludwig looked up at Uccello, as if the pokémon could provide him answers. "Is he running from… _me_?" he asked aloud in disbelief.

As expected, he received no answer from the bird pokémon. It only swooped low and flew faster, as if it were indicating that Ludwig should speed up as well, before its trainer got lost.

Well, Ludwig only imagined that the pidgey would be indicating something like that, considering the unfortunately careless behavior of its trainer.

Either way, he obliged, picking up his pace. Sure enough, as he observed, the human and pokémon soon burst suddenly through the trees, and a town in the distance came to view.

Ludwig slowed to a walk, taking in the sight with some awe. He'd never been so far from Pallet Town before. This new place was much larger than the quiet, clean village, with a completely different feel about the area. There was something… Grey and tough about this place, which he perceived even before reaching the city limits. The greenery cut off abruptly at Pewter City's border, with large, foreboding boulders and gravel and cement covering the ground.

This was where he also caught up to Feliciano.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing, running away like that?" Ludwig demanded, approaching the Italian, irritated.

Feliciano spun at the sound of his voice. He smiled sheepishly and looked down. "Ve, oh, um, sorry about that… I guess I kinda tricked myself into thinking you were a scary person chasing me, and I, um, got scared and so I ran away really fast. Sorry…" He kicked at a rock, never lifting his eyes to meet Ludwig's. Uccello landed gracefully on Feliciano's shoulder, and he absently stroked the bird.

Ludwig sighed. "Whatever. It's fine. Just… Don't do that again."

The Italian looked up at him, smiled softly, and nodded again. "Ve, ok, Luddy, I will," he said, giggling when Ludwig issued the anticipated groan of annoyance.

The two entered the city. As they searched for the familiar red roof of the pokémon center, Ludwig eyed Uccello curiously. The pidgey was still seated on Feliciano's shoulders, its talons gripping him in a way that, if not painful, seemed uncomfortable to say the least. The way Ludwig saw it; it would be much easier to just return the pokémon to its ball, rather than keeping it out.

"Why don't you put your pokémon in a ball?" Ludwig asked after a while.

For a minute, Feliciano seemed confused by the question. Then his eye caught Uccello and he chuckled, as if just realizing the pidgey was perched on his shoulder.

"Well," he said, fondly playing with Uccello's tail feathers. "Uccello is always out, by my side, to protect me."

Ludwig raised an eyebrow. From his experience, pidgey were very weak creatures. If it was up to him, he wouldn't even have one in his party. Unfortunately, for some reason that Ludwig couldn't fathom, he'd decided to catch one, just to prove that he knew how to catch pokémon. In retrospect, it was a stupid decision. He just hadn't the heart to throw it out.

Although Ludwig seemed cold and strict, he wasn't cruel.

"Really. A _pidgey_ protects you? Those weak little creatures?"

"Pidgey!" Uccello cried in indignation.

Feliciano appeared shocked by Ludwig's accusation. "No way! Uccello isn't weak! He's very, very strong!"

Ludwig rolled his eyes. "Right, sure he is," he said sarcastically.

Feliciano huffed. "It's true! Just check in the pokédex—my nonno gave you a pokédex, right? Just check there and it'll tell you!"

Ludwig blinked. He hadn't told the Italian that he'd received a pokédex, and he doubted Professor Vargas had written to his grandson yet on the subject. "How do you know that?" he asked, feeling a bit disturbed by Feliciano's knowledge.

The shorter man waved his concerns away with a laugh. "Well, nonno isn't exactly stingy with his technology! He gives stuff like that out to all of the people he's friends with. And since your grandpa is friends with him, nonno would _definitely _give you a pokédex!"

Ludwig nodded. That made sense. Without deigning to reply, he silently pulled out the red electronic encyclopedia and aimed the small camera at Uccello. A bright blue beam ran over the pidgey, and was over before the pokémon could even blink. The pidgey's picture popped up on the screen, along with a list of rather detailed information on specifically Uccello, in addition to the information he had gotten from his own pidgey.

He saw the level of strength, and gaped. "F—forty-two?" Ludwig exclaimed. "How is it not a pidgeott yet?"

Feliciano shrugged, as if the thought of evolving his pokémon had not really occurred to him. "Well, Uccello helps me out just fine the way he is, and he doesn't want to change, and he's cuter like this anyway!" he said.

Ludwig shook his head, unable to understand this man. As soon as his charmander was strong enough, he wanted her to evolve as quickly as possible. A charmeleon, and later a charizard, was much better than a tiny charmander.

"Ve, look! There's the pokémon center!" Feliciano shattered through Ludwig's thoughts with his delighted shout.

Sure enough, the building was now directly in front of them. It was a splash of red among the boring grey buildings and scenery that surrounded it. The sight was a relief to Ludwig's eyes, and the two entered the pokécenter.

The familiar figure of Nurse Joy stood, smiling that gentle smile, behind the counter. Occasionally, she would leave her station to check in the back room, where pokémon were healing, and then she'd make rounds to the various waiting trainers, each in different stages of worry. She would say something to each, and then left them along with a small, sympathetic bow of her head. Once she finished, she gave instructions to a couple of chansey, and finally returned to the counter.

"Ve, Marissa~! Ciao, bella, ciao~!" Feliciano greeted the nurse gleefully, running up to the counter.

Ludwig half expected the red-haired woman to look confused. After all, everyone in the Joy family was disconcertingly similar, and he heard that they were often mistaken for each other. This Joy looked exactly the same as the one he had seen back in Viridian City.

To his surprise, the woman giggled, putting a hand over her heart. "Oh my, Mr. Vargas. It's been much too long since you last visited. I almost thought you'd forgotten all about me," she said.

Feliciano took Marissa Joy's hand and kissed it. "How could I ever forget a pretty lady such as you? Please, call me Feliciano. Mr. Vargas is much too formal," he said.

Marissa giggled again and drew her hand away. "Oh, Feli, I'm trying to work here," she protested lightly.

The Italian smiled. "Well, then after work I'd love to take you out to a nice romantic dinner at a really fancy restaurant, Marissa," he said.

The nurse blushed. "Oh! Oh my, Feliciano, I'd love to, but I've got the night shift today. Maybe some other time," she added quickly when Feliciano sighed in disappointment.

Ludwig felt as if the two had forgotten all about his presence in their flirting. As glad as he was to see the man reunited with his girlfriend, he wanted to secure a room, and finally take a shower. He coughed loudly.

The two lovers jumped. "Oh, sorry, Luddy!" Feliciano released Marissa's hand and stepped back. "Marissa, this is my new friend, Ludwig. He helped me out in the forest when Uccello was gone. Oh! That reminds me!" He reached into his basket and pulled out a tomato. "For you, bella~!"

Marissa took the fruit with a blush and a smile. "Thank you so much, Feli." She set the tomato down and held her hand out to Ludwig. "Nice to meet you, sir. Thank you for taking care of this cute little careless Italian here."

He took her hand with a nod, not returning the smile. "A pleasure."

She seemed unnerved by his tacit, stoic behavior, and ended the handshake quickly. "W—well then. Welcome to my pokémon center. Can I help you with anything?" she asked, forcing herself to smile.

Ludwig nodded. "I'd like a room for the night," he said.

Nurse Joy nodded and unlocked a small drawer, from which she produced a card key. "Here you are. That would be 500 poké," she said, handing over the key.

He took it, and reached for his bag. 500 poké was a reasonable price. Cheap, even.

Before he could even locate his money, Feliciano cut him off, holding out a fistful of paper that was crinkled and torn from the drop in the pond and then slowly drying. "Here, I'll pay~! There're two beds in each room, right? And I need to thank you for saving me," he told Ludwig, smiling.

Ludwig paled. He thought he was finally going to get rid of his new "friend". "B—but don't you want to spend time with Nurse Joy?"

Feliciano laughed, oblivious to Ludwig's desire to get away from him. "Silly, Luddy! You heard Marissa say that she was working the night shift~!" He wrapped his thin arms around Ludwig's muscular one. "Let's go, ve~!"

As Feliciano dragged Ludwig toward the stairs, Marissa smiled apologetically, waving goodbye to the two. "Thank you for coming by, please have a nice day!" she called, and immediately turned to the trainer who had approached the counter. Ludwig inwardly groaned.

When they reached the room indicated on the card key, Feliciano swiped it from Ludwig and swung the door open. He skipped inside, jumping on the bed closest to the window. "I call this one, ve~!" he announced, bouncing on the soft mattress.

Ludwig rolled his eyes and dropped his bag onto the unoccupied one. "Why do you keep saying that?" he asked.

Feliciano rolled onto his stomach to look at Ludwig. "Ve? What do you mean?"

"I mean that… That 've, ve' thing you keep doing."

The Italian furrowed his eyebrows, puzzled. "Ve? Oh! That's just a random little word that I got into the habit of saying. It's cool, isn't it~?"

Ludwig turned away. "Ja, sure, whatever. I'm going to take a shower, so don't go popping into the bathroom all naked or anything," he said.

Feliciano sat up and waved enthusiastically at him, even though Ludwig wasn't going very far. "Ok, Luddy, see you soon~!"

* * *

><p><strong>Ludwig's Party:<strong>

**Charmander, lvl 10**

**Pidgey, lvl 3**

**Feliciano's Party:**

**Uccello (Pidgey), lvl 42**

It felt wonderful to wash away the filth and grime that he'd picked up from the forest. He stood beneath the stream of hot water longer than he usually did, enjoying the simple pleasure of a shower. It seemed as if his journey would not be as easy and quick as he had initially thought.

When the water became lukewarm, Ludwig shut off the stream and dried off. He turned the vent on to clear the cloud of steam that thickened the air in the bathroom. As it cleared, he examined his appearance in the mirror. There were several scratches on his arms, which he wasn't sure where they came from, but other than that, he looked well. Brushing back his hair, he began to dress.

He only had time to pull his pants on before he heard Feliciano scream in the other room. Ludwig burst out of the bathroom. "What is it, Feliciano, are you alright?"

Feliciano was standing on top of his bed, huddled fearfully against the wall. Ludwig's charmander was currently trying to clamber on top as well, hissing and shredding the blankets. "Luddy! Help me, save me! Eek!" he cried as the charmander made a swipe at him.

Ludwig sighed. "Charmander, stop," he commanded.

She listened immediately, but didn't look happy about it. Giving one last dirty look and hiss at the groveling Italian, she went over to another corner, like she was sulking over Ludwig stopping her assault.

He watched to make sure that she wasn't planning a surprise attack. "What happened?" he asked.

Feliciano sat down on the bed, letting out a heavy sigh of relief. "Well, I just wanted to see your pretty pidgey, so I picked up a pokéball and tried to release it, but your charmander came out of it instead, and she attacked me," he said.

Ludwig crossed his arms, irritated. "Why didn't you just get your pidgey to fend her off?" he wanted to know.

The Italian blushed a bit. "Well, I thought Marissa would be lonely down there working the night shift, so I sent Uccello to keep her company," he said.

The German sighed, sitting down on his bed. He picked up his charmander when she walked over to him and set her on the bed. "Well, I suppose it would make sense that you'd want to make sure your girlfriend is happy, although I still don't see why you were trying to release that weak pidgey I have."

"Ve? Girlfriend? Marissa isn't my girlfriend," Feliciano said, tilting his head slightly. "Why would you think that?"

Ludwig stared, unable to believe what he was hearing. "But… But you kissed her hand. And you… you were flirting with her and stuff…" he pointed out, remembering the scene he had witnessed just an hour ago.

Feliciano laughed, making Ludwig's cheeks grow red in embarrassment. "Oh! I'm nice to _all _the pretty ladies like that! Nonno says I have to treat women like that, especially if they're beautiful."

Ludwig didn't respond. Professor Vargas now seemed like a bigger creep than he had originally thought.

"What's your charmander's name?" Feliciano asked suddenly.

Ludwig raised an eyebrow. "Name? She doesn't have one."

Feliciano gaped. "What? No way! Why not?" he asked, pouting.

Ludwig shrugged. "She doesn't need one. All she needs is to be loyal to me and strong, so it really doesn't matter," he explained.

His words made Feliciano frown, a worry line folding across his forehead. "But… That's so sad… It's like she has no identity…" he murmured.

Ludwig lay down, patting his charmander's head. "She doesn't need to have an identity. Look, she's happy without one." Well, "happy" probably wasn't the correct term for the cold, serious pokémon, but she definitely wasn't _un_happy.

Feliciano perked up with a broad smile. "Oh, I know! I'll give her a name!"

Ludwig shrugged again. "Fine, do what you want," he rolled over on the bed.

"Yay!" Feliciano skipped over to Ludwig's bed. "Um, you're a charmander, so I'll call you Charlotte! Isn't that a good name?"

"Char!" the pokémon disagreed with a hiss, slashing at Feliciano again.

Feliciano yelped and jumped back. "Ah, Charlotte it is…"

Ludwig rolled his eyes at the wall. He twisted to look at the bedside clock. It wasn't even noon yet.

Today was going to be a long day…

* * *

><p><strong>Feliciano is generally weak, so I gave him an insanely high-level pokemon. Ahaha...<strong>


	5. Chapter 5

** Again, sorry for the amount of time it took me to update, again. I had hoped once school ended I'd be able to write a lot more. But then I got a job. So yeah, I'll do my best from now on!**

* * *

><p><strong>Ludwig's Party:<strong>

"**Charlotte" (Charmander), lvl 10**

**Pidgey, lvl 3**

**Feliciano's Party:**

**Uccello (Pidgey), lvl 42**

Ludwig had quickly returned the newly nicknamed "Charlotte" into her pokéball, not wanting the fiery-tempered pokémon to turn Feliciano into charcoal. No matter how much the Italian annoyed him. After he had finished getting dressed and the duo left.

"Hope to see you again~!" Marissa called out to them as they left the Center. Or rather, she called out to Feliciano, if her giggling voice and fluttering lashes were anything to go by.

With a small grimace, Ludwig raised his hand in farewell. Hearing so much emotion in a person's voice made him uncomfortable, like he was intruding on something private. Feliciano, on his part, was blissfully unaware of his companion's discomfort, and he waved cheerfully back.

"Ciao, bella, ciao! I'll definitely see the pretty Marissa Joy soon!" he called, bringing a fresh round of girly giggles to the otherwise professional nurse.

Ludwig had the nagging suspicion this scene would repeat every time he needed to heal his pokémon. The thought made him grit his teeth. He was going to have to deal with it that night when they returned to the pokémon center as well. Maybe it would be a good idea to buy some potions, to prevent this from happening. So he turned in the direction of the blue-roofed building, not too far from the pokémon center.

Feliciano skipped alongside him, not asking where Ludwig was leading him and probably not caring. "Ve, what are we going to do today, Luddy~? Are you going to challenge the gym here?" Feliciano gasped, his face brightening with an idea as if a light bulb had literally appeared above his head. Ludwig wouldn't be surprised if it had.

"What now?" Ludwig grumbled after Feliciano didn't say anything, apparently too stunned with his own brilliance to speak. People were staring at them, and the German felt his cheeks glow red in shame despite himself. He was glad when they entered the store and found it nearly empty except for about three people, two at the counter manning the cash registers and one in an official-looking uniform.

"You should challenge the gym here! You're so strong; you would beat him in a second!"

Ludwig shrugged. "I suppose I might try," he said neutrally. It would probably be a great way to train his charmander, grooming her for the military life he intended to go into.

Feliciano chatted on, gushing about Ludwig's strength, as the stoic trainer browsed the shelves. He grabbed a pack of potions and walked to the counter, largely ignoring the babbling man beside him.

The cashier scanned the potions handing them to Ludwig. "Are you really planning on taking on Vash?" he asked.

Vash was most likely the gym leader of this town. Ludwig raised his shoulders, brushing off the question as he carefully placed the spray medicine into his bag. He didn't feel like answering the questions of some complete stranger.

Of course, Feliciano had no such reservations.

"Yes, he is, and he's going to win for sure, because he's the strongest trainer I've ever met, ever!" Feliciano piped up.

Both cashiers gave a smug smile. "Oh, you're certain of that?" one asked.

The other added, "Because, you know, Leader Vash is practically undefeated. He'd never lose in front of his younger sister."

The way these two men spoke to him grated on Ludwig's nerves. "What does his sister have to do with anything?" he asked, feeling a sudden determination to fight this Vash person and pound him into the dust.

"Well, Vash used to be a police officer, until…" The cashier trailed away, coughing nervously.

"Until his little sister was kidnapped by… by these people," the other one supplied.

Feliciano let out a little gasp. "How horrible! Is she alright? Who could do something like kidnap a girl?" he said, as if the worst crime to him was any crime against a woman.

Both cashiers nodded. "None of us know the details, but somehow she was freed. Vash was hard on himself about it, insisting that it was his fault that he wasn't there for her, and that he wasn't strong enough to help her. So he quit being a police officer and focused on strengthening himself and his pokémon."

"And being a gym leader was the perfect way to do so! He absolutely refuses to ever lose again, all to protect his younger sister!"

Feliciano sniffed loudly, wiping away a tear. "It's so sad, so tragic. That's such a beautiful story, ve…"

The cashiers agreed. Ludwig said nothing for a while, taking in this new information.

"Even so, I will beat him," Ludwig said finally. Vash may have made a pact to protect his loved ones, but so did Ludwig. It was the reason why he was training himself to go into Kanto's military.

"What pokémon do you have?" the man in the uniform said suddenly. The other four jumped, surprised at him having spoken.

Ludwig maintained his composure, turning to the man. Looking at him straight on, Ludwig realized that this man—with bright blue eyes and blond hair that was too long—wore a police uniform.

"A charmander at level ten and a pidgey, but I don't intend to use it," Ludwig replied.

The man sighed, shaking his head. "Alas, that won't be enough. Vash has rock pokémon, and if you go in with those, you're out of luck. Best get yourself a fighting type, like mankey," he advised.

"Where do you get one of those?"

The man thought for a while. "I suppose the closest place would be near Viridian City," he said after some careful consideration.

Ludwig inwardly grimaced. That was all the way back through the forest. And if Feliciano insisted on tagging along, they'd probably be lost for a couple days again. But he wasn't about to let that show.

"Danke for your advice," he said politely, having no intention of following it if it meant going through that forest again.

The man smiled and nodded. "But of course, it's my pleasure to help. You sound like my friend, if he were more uptight and silent." He laughed when Ludwig's eye twitched. "You're both very proud, too. Au revoir, I have a job to do. Come see me if you're ever in Celadon!"

And with that, he was gone.

After the man had left, Ludwig wondered if the friend he'd mentioned could have been Gilbert. But no, that was ridiculous. Ludwig and his older brother were nothing alike at all.

"Come on, Feliciano, I need to train my charmander some more," Ludwig said.

"Her name is _Charlotte,_ Luddy!" Feliciano reminded him as they left the pokémart.

Ludwig ignored him as they went to the grassy area bordering the town. He released his pokémon.

"We're going to be fighting an important battle today. Train hard, and don't lose," he told her.

She gave him an icy look, as if she were indignant that he could even imply that there was a possibility she'd lose.

"Um, Luddy?" Feliciano asked as Ludwig sought out wild pokémon to attack.

Ludwig frowned, not wanting to listen to Feliciano's blather while he was training. "What?" he asked harshly.

Feliciano flinched at his tone, but continued on anyway. "Didn't that man say not to use Charlotte?" he asked.

"Well, we aren't going back through that forest to get a mankey," Ludwig replied, ordering his charmander to use scratch on the rattata he had flushed from the tall grass.

"Um, well, I have one…" he said uncertainly. "We could trade."

Ludwig stared down at Feliciano, forgetting to command his pokémon. "Trade? For what? Not my charmander," he said with a suspicious growl.

Feliciano shrunk away from the taller man. "No, no! I was thinking that you'd trade my Scimmia?"

He even named his mankey. Ludwig rolled his eyes, but he'd take what he could get. "Why would you want another pidgey when you have one already?" he asked.

A bright smile replaced Feliciano's uncertain, fearful look. "Because Uccello needs a girlfriend, of course!"

The concept of having a copy of the same pokémon was still strange to Ludwig, but he shrugged and accepted it. "Fine, let's trade."

Both trainers released their pokémon. The pidgey looked all around, surprised at its new surroundings. It hadn't been outside the pokémon since Ludwig captured it. It looked up at Ludwig; distrust clear in its gaze.

Ludwig pointed at Feliciano. "That is your trainer now. Accept him," he said coldly, and tossed the pokéball to his partner, who fumbled for it.

Feliciano smiled warmly at the bird pokémon. "Ve, let's be good friends~!" he said, gesturing to a shoulder. Uccello, who had been flying overhead for some time now, landed on Feliciano's other shoulder.

At first, the pidgey looked at Feliciano with suspicion, but when Uccello joined his trainer, all that disappeared. The pokémon gladly hopped up onto the offered shoulder, giving a content chirp.

"Hmm, you're such a pretty pidgey, so I'll call you Bella from now on, ok~?" Feliciano said.

Although traded pokémon rarely responded to any name besides the one their original trainer gave them, Bella accepted the nickname with a grateful noise.

It was different when Feliciano released his mankey afterwards. The monkey-like pokémon landed on the ground, prepared to fight. It's beady little eyes darted this way and that, immediately searching for the enemy. That's when it locked its eyes on Ludwig, and since he was the only one around, assumed he was the threat.

"MANKEY!" it cried, launching itself at Ludwig.

"Charmander!" Ludwig called, and the pokémon abandoned the wild one she was fighting to slide in between them.

Before any fight could begin, Feliciano softly said, "Scimmia, stop per favore." And even though Feliciano's voice was so soft, nearly inaudible, the mankey did, turned and launching itself at its trainer instead.

Ludwig's eyes widened, shocked that the pokémon would attack its own trainer. He was about to command his charmander to attack when something even stranger happened. The mankey, instead of hitting its trainer like he thought it was doing, actually _hugged_ Feliciano.

"Oh, Scimmia, you're such a good boy," Feliciano cooed to his pokémon.

"Mankey!" the pokémon responded, all aggression in his voice transformed into pure affection.

To say Ludwig was in awe would be an understatement. With his mouth hanging open, he watched as the mankey, known for its blind fury at anything and everything that crossed its path, acted like a domesticated pet. If Feliciano could tame even the most ferocious creatures, then Ludwig may have underestimated his, albeit weak, companion.

"Ok, Scimmia, you're going to be with Luddy from now on, so listen to him," Feliciano said with a bright smile, giggling a bit at the German's expression.

The mankey obviously didn't like the idea of changing masters. Scimmia shot Ludwig a suspicious glare. Ludwig slammed his jaw shut and glared back. He could practically see the steam rising off the top of the pokémon's head.

"We'll be travelling together though, so you should do your best and fight with Luddy, ok?" Feliciano said, looking at Scimmia with pleading eyes.

The pokémon hung its head in resignation and allowed Feliciano to transfer ownership to Ludwig. Feliciano handed the ball to the taller man, who quickly returned the pokémon to it.

"He only responds to Scimmia, so make sure to remember than when commanding him. Ve, he's not too dangerous, but he gets scared easily and throws temper tantrums a lot, so you've got to be careful," Feliciano explained.

That was a description often used _for_ dangerous things, but Ludwig grimaced at having to use a nickname. It felt like he was babying the pokémon, making them weaker because of it. He needed fighting partners, not pets, like Feliciano obviously wanted to have. Regardless, a fighting type would be useful at this stage.

"Ja, I understand." He gave a terse nod, turning back to the grass.

"Charmander, let's go."

"Char!"

He released the mankey. "Mankey, flush out the wild pokémon," he said.

The pokémon glared up at him, crossed its arms, and turned away.

"Ve, _Luuuuddyyyy_," Feliciano was saying behind him.

Ludwig sighed heavily. He had been hoping that Feliciano was only exaggerating about him needing to use the nickname. "Fine, Scimmia, do it," he said in a low, strained voice.

Scimmia immediately jumped to obey.


	6. Chapter 6

** If you think about it, it does seem a little silly that a pokémon cannot use any moves until it levels up enough for it. Like Mankey doesn't learn Karate Chop until level 11 in generation 3, but it'd make sense for it to be able to do so early on. I've thought about it, and I think that it's not effective enough to be used until the pokémon gains a bit of experience.**

** Just my thoughts on it. I'm most likely not going to go over it in this story, so I thought to put it here in my author's note.**

* * *

><p><strong>Ludwig's Party:<strong>

"**Charlotte" (Charmander), lvl 14**

"**Scimmia" (Mankey), lvl 10**

**Feliciano's Party:**

**Uccello (Pidgey), lvl 42**

**Bella (Pidgey), lvl 3**

Ludwig would have never thought that training pokémon would be so hard. It had always seemed so easy for his older brother. Gilbert was a natural, strengthening his pokémon with what the man had dubbed "Prussian-style Training". It was scary for Ludwig to see his egotistical brother snap into his harsh training style. During those times, Gilbert just seemed so… out of character.

"Why do you call it 'Prussian-style Training, Bruder?" Ludwig had asked one day while watching the albino man train his growlithe, the pokémon most commonly used in the Kanto police force.

Gilbert didn't answer at first, ignoring Ludwig in favor of focusing on the current battle with a rattata. When it was finished, he sighed, content, and returned his pokémon to its ball. That was when he turned to grin at Ludwig.

"Don't you pay attention in history class, Luddy?" he asked teasingly, placing his hands on his hips.

Ludwig set his jaw, indignant that Gilbert would even suggest a thing. "Of course I do. What does that have to do with your training?" It just didn't make sense. Sure, their ancestors had lived in Germany, but as far as Ludwig knew, they had no ties to Prussia whatsoever.

Gilbert literally swaggered over to Ludwig. He patted the blond's head, earning a grimace, which he laughed off and mussed up Ludwig's hair even more.

"Well, you see, my little bruder, many, many, _many _years ago, when Prussia still existed, a new country was about to be born," he began in his ridiculously dramatic story-telling voice.

Ludwig rolled his eyes, trying to think of newly formed countries linked to Prussia. He could only think of one. "You mean _Germany_, bruder?" he prompted, wanting to hurry the story along.

To his surprise, Gilbert laughed, shaking his head. "No, I don't mean Germany, Luddy!" he replied, still laughing.

If it wasn't Germany… Ludwig frowned, confused. "Then what are you talking about?"

"_America_, Luddy. Back when the United States was just a bunch of ununited colonies, about to break away from England for good, Prussia lent them a tiny bit of help and training."

Ludwig wasn't too sure 'ununited' was a word, but he allowed it to slip. He nodded slowly. "Ja, but…" He trailed away.

Fortunately, Gilbert forged ahead without any further prompting. "The Prussian military training was harsh, consisting of abuse, training, and more abuse! And since Prussia was always so awesome, I decided to train my pokémon in that same way!"

Later, Ludwig realized that Gilbert's little narrative was unnecessary for explaining why he called it "Prussian-style Training". Still, seeing how his brother and his pokémon became so strong with it, he decided that it was probably a great training regimen for himself when he set off with his own pokémon.

However, he didn't foresee the difficulties he was facing _now_, and he had a feeling that it was all due to a certain Italian companion of his.

"Mankey, use scratch!" he commanded the small, monkey-like creature.

It scooped up a handful of dirt and threw it his way.

Ludwig ducked out of the way. "Nein! Use scratch on the pokémon _now_!" His face was red from yelling for the past hour.

The pokémon turned away, crossing its arms stubbornly. Meanwhile, the pidgey they were fighting took to the air and flew away.

Now, Ludwig liked to view himself as a very calm trainer. Very. Calm. But this… This was _ridiculous_! How could a stupid little pokémon disobey him? All over a stupid _name_! _Scimmia_! He didn't even know what it meant, but it didn't matter. Nicknames were useless! And he was determined to drill that into this pokemon's thick skull!

Trembling with rage, Ludwig scooped up a good-sized rock. Feliciano, who until then had been cowering a short distance away, frightened by Ludwig's own "Prussian-styled Training", leapt to his feet.

"Luddy, no! Don't hurt Scimmia, ve!" he cried, flinging his entire weight on Ludwig's outstretched arm.

"Get off of me, idiot!" he bellowed, throwing Feliciano off of him.

The Italian landed on his back, hard. Feliciano's eyes filled with tears and the wimpy man began to bawl.

Ludwig was fed up with all this nonsense. His upper lip curled back from his teeth in a snarl. "Nein! Your sniveling is _unacceptable_! You call yourself a man? Then start _acting _like one!" he shouted in a booming voice.

Feliciano's cries immediately caught Scimmia's attention. Enraged by the sight of Ludwig yelling at his former owner, the mankey launched itself at Ludwig, fists flying. Before it could even reach him, Ludwig returned the pokémon to its ball.

Ignoring Feliciano's continued crying, Ludwig took a deep breath in… and out… Inhale… Exhale… In… Out…

Slightly frustrated, but a lot more composed now, Ludwig decided it would probably be best to train another pokémon, one that he hadn't received with a useless nickname.

"Come out, charmander," he muttered, releasing the fire-type from her ball.

Strangely, like the red beam of light had triggered a switch in the Italian, Feliciano lit up at the appearance of the charmander. "Ve, ciao, Charlotte~! Train hard! I'll cheer for—Eek!" He curled into a ball to avoid the ball of flame "Charlotte" maliciously launched at him.

Ludwig gave a small smile, grimly proud for his pokemon's displeasure at being given a nickname by Feliciano. "Charmander, cease fire," he said sternly, trying to mask his pride.

That's when she turned her cold look on him. Well, it was colder than usual. This wasn't just the charmander's ego. She was making it clear that it was _him_ that she was displeased with.

He couldn't really blame her. She had multiple scratches along her sides, signs of the countless battles she had fought over the course of the day. In addition to that, she was worn down, exhausted, and that was something no amount of potions could fix. Ludwig wished he had enough poké for an elixir. According to his brother, those helped to replenish a pokemon's stamina. Very useful for long training days like today.

Oh well. There was no use in yearning for something out of reach. Ludwig had to focus on what was at hand. And that was making sure he would be able to prove the pokémart cashiers wrong by destroying Pewter City's gym leader.

"I know we've trained long and hard today. You've done well. But just a little more training before we can turn in," he said by way of a pep talk.

Normally, the praise would have boosted the charmander's ego. At the moment, however, she refused to allow him to praise her. "Char," she hissed out disdainfully.

Ludwig sighed. He pulled a potion out from his bag. "This should help a bit," he said, spraying it on her body.

"Char!" She cried out as the medicine stung her wounds. She jerked away from him, whipping her tail out to smack the spray bottle away. He withdrew his hand quickly, and the flames at the tip of her tail barely skimmed over his skin.

At least the wounds quickly healed up because of the potent spray.

He flushed yet another pidgey from the grass. "Scratch, then ember," he commanded.

With a last, fierce glare at him, she launched herself forward to attack the wild pokémon. Meanwhile, Feliciano watched the training session, his expression upset and torn. Both of his pidgeys stood on the ground beside him, and he absently ran his fingers through their feathers.

"Ve, it's none of my business, but… Luddy's mean to his pokémon," he murmured.

Bella had closed her eyes, enjoying her new owners touch, but Uccello looked up at Feliciano.

The Italian laughed a bit, but it wasn't anywhere near his usual cheerfulness. "But I'm sure he cares for them! I mean… He used the potion still, didn't he?" Feliciano shuddered, thinking of trainers he had seen who trained their pokémon until their entire party fainted, just to be saved the trouble of buying potions, or having to constantly travel back to the pokémon center. It was horrible; much worse than Ludwig's training methods.

Uccello nuzzled his head against Feliciano's side comfortingly. The frail man smiled, more genuinely this time. "Grazie, Uccellino. You're a great friend."

"Excellent, charmander," Ludwig said, nodding in approval as his pokémon knocked out yet another pidgey.

The fire type flicked her tail haughtily as she walked back over to her trainer, as if to say, "But of course. What did you expect from _me_?" And then, suddenly, a fierce light burst out, devouring the charmander in mere moments.

Feliciano gasped loudly, and even Ludwig couldn't stop his own sharp intake of air, shocked. "Ch—Charlotte! She's…" The Italian trailed away, staring at the pokémon with his mouth shaped in a little 'o'.

Ludwig had seen it happen once before, when he was a kid, but it was unmistakable what was happening to his pokémon. She was evolving.

The light obscuring her grew in size, the feature morphing, becoming sharper. Ludwig knew he could have stopped it by smacking her, shattering the concentration a pokémon no doubt needed to control its evolution, but why would he want to do that? Evolved pokémon were stronger.

Then, as suddenly as it began, the light vanished, a taller, more fierce charmeleon standing where his charmander once stood.

A small smile found its way onto Ludwig's lips. "Well done, Charmeleon," he said, allowing the fondness to permeate his voice.

And his pokémon couldn't have been prouder.

"Ve, Luddy, look at Charlotte's claws. They're so pretty and shiny~!" Feliciano gasped, crouching down close to get a better look.

The newly evolved charmeleon allowed his proximity to her, in a tolerant mood at the moment. She even held up her claws to examine them, much like a human woman would examine her nails.

Ludwig looked. Feliciano was right, the claws were now a bright, metallic silver color instead of a dull grey. In fact, they looked like they were _made_ from metal.

"Metal claw, huh?" he said slowly.

Feliciano looked up at him with a bright smile. "Metal is strong, ve~. Maybe she can break rocks now!" he said.

Perhaps she could, Ludwig thought. He pondered this thought for a few moments. "I believe…" he said finally, "… we are ready to challenge Vash."

* * *

><p>"Ve, are you sure Luddy?"<p>

"Ja."

"R—right now?"

"Ja."

"You don't want to rest and wait until tomorrow to challenge the gym or something?"

"Feliciano…"

The Italian looked down, shutting his mouth. Ludwig sighed in relief. True, he was lucky to have Feliciano as a companion, if he only looked at the pokémon the smaller man had (a completely overpowered pidgey and a much weaker mankey that Ludwig could use against rock types). But that didn't make Feliciano any less annoying.

"I know the pokémon are rested up enough. It's been a couple hours since Charlo—I mean Charmander—evolved, and that whole time we sat in that center doing _nothing_," Ludwig explained carefully.

He must be spending too much time with Feliciano if he was beginning to use those useless nicknames.

"V—ve, if you're sure." Feliciano didn't look convinced, but he dropped it. He combed his fingers through Bella's feathers nervously. The pidgey nuzzled her new trainer's cheek, something she'd learned from Uccello that made Feliciano feel better.

Just like he did for Uccello, Feliciano smiled at Bella. "Grazie, Bellina," he whispered.

Ludwig pushed through the glass doors of the gym. In front of him was a large arena, created to look like some rocky wasteland. Scanning the area, it was clear that rock and ground types would have the advantage—ground pokémon being able to dive underground and rock pokémon blending in with the rocky terrain.

"Oh. Welcome to the Pewter Gym," a tiny voice greeted them.

The two turned to see a small girl, an uncertain smile on her face. Her straw-colored hair was neatly tucked into two braids, emphasizing the innocence implied from her neat, frilly red dress and large blue-green eyes.

"You're here to challenge mein big bruder… Ja?" Her eyes shifted from a spot just above them to the ground; she seemed reluctant to make direct eye contact. Either she was naturally painfully shy, or the kidnapping the pokémart cashiers had told them about really traumatized the girl. Ludwig was willing to bet on the latter.

Ludwig nodded. "Ja. Right away," he said.

The girl bit her lip nervously. "Well, um, you… you can't. Not right at this moment. Um…" Her eyes darted about as her anxiety increased.

"Don't worry, Elise, I've got this." A young boy stepped out from a side door. Her brother, Ludwig assumed.

Elise's entire body relaxed. She smiled gratefully at the trainer. "Danke, George," she breathed, retreating back to the bleachers."

Oh, not her brother.

George grinned at the two of them. "Like she said, you can't challenge Vash just yet," he told them.

Ludwig's eye twitched. This was getting annoying. "And why not?"

"Because he doesn't need to waste time on weaklings like you! I can take care of you both, no problem! And if you happen to beat me," he gave a short laugh, "which you won't, then you have to beat the next trainer. Then, and only then can you battle Leader Vash!"

Feliciano shrunk away. "Ve, I'm not battling," he said.

George shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever. Go sit by Elise. And don't scare her or Vash'll have your head!" he called as Feliciano dashed away. He grinned at Ludwig. "Ready to back out?"

Ludwig removed a ball from his belt. "Never."

The boy grinning, holding out the single ball he had. "You're going to lose, you know," he said.

Ludwig narrowed his eyes. "No one will beat me," he vowed.

And with that, his first gym match began.

* * *

><p><strong>In a couple weeks, I'll be going off to college. And so I think I'll put writing this story on a schedule, updating it once a week. I'll need this, because this will be fairly long. But that'll have to wait until I move. Until then, I'm writing whenever I can. Really sorry about this.<strong>


	7. Chapter 7

**Right now, for me, it is Wednesday. And this will be the day I put up each new chapter of this story. Since it is going to be quite long, a schedule like this is important for me, especially now that I'm starting class tomorrow.**

**Unfortunately, my other stories will be written as I have time. Sorry about this. But at least Ludwig and Feliciano's adventures will be constant (unless something happens and I'm unable to update. I'll let you know if I won't be able to.)**

**So without further ado, here is Ludwig's first gym battle!**

* * *

><p><strong>Ludwig's Party:<br>"Charlotte" (Charmander) – Lvl 14  
>"Scimmia" (Mankey) – Lvl 10<strong>

**Feliciano's Party:  
>Uccello (Pidgey) – Lvl 42<br>Bella (Pidgey) – Lvl 3**

"Sandshrew, let's show this guy who's boss!" George shouted, tossing the ball out on the field to release the tiny ground type.

Ludwig felt the display was unnecessarily flamboyant. A good soldier would never clue in their enemy like that. So, silently, he released his mankey.

The boy laughed at the sight of the fiery-tempered pokemon. "Seriously? That little thing can't beat sandshrew in a million light years!"

Scimmia was infuriated by the insult. He stamped the ground, letting loose a furious cry. Ludwig smiled grimly. Only an idiot would insult another's pokemon before even beginning the battle.

"Light years are a distance. Now Scimmia, karate chop," Ludwig commanded calmly, remembering to use the nickname Feliciano had originally given the mankey.

The pokemon let out an alien strangled sound that Ludwig could only describe as a war cry, launching its body at the sandshrew with flailing arms.

"Sandshrew, quick dig to escape!" George shouted quickly.

Sandshrew had been trying to dodge its opponent. The sudden command threw the pokemon off, and it stumbled in its attempt to change its course of action. That was all Scimmia needed to land a solid hit square on the ground types head.

The sadistic smile forming at the corners of Ludwig's mouth widened. Obviously there wasn't much coordination between this trainer and pokemon. George was just a big-mouthed sorry excuse for a gym trainer.

A shiver ran down the sandshrew's back. Slowly, it tilted, and finally fell onto its back, knocked out cold by Scimmia's furious attack. George stared at the sight, open-mouthed, like he couldn't believe his mediocre strategy would ever fail him.

Ludwig crossed his arms, smile never fading from his face. "I believe I won," he said with a nod toward the stands, where Feliciano was jumping around enthusiastically, cheering at the top of his lungs.

"YAY, LUDDY! YOU DID IT, YAY! YOU WON!" he was cheering. Elise was smiling softly at him from her seat next to him, surprising considering her painfully shy first impression she'd given them. Ludwig would have thought Feliciano's antics would scare her off.

George returned his pokemon, refusing to look Ludwig in the eye. "Yeah, sure whatever. Lucky shot. You still can't beat Vash!" he declared, spinning on his heel and running back through the door he had entered from.

Not too long after, a girl poked her head from the room. "Hello," she greeted Ludwig, bowing her head slightly. "So you beat George? He was very upset."

Ludwig nodded, unapologetic. "Ja, I did. One strike," he said, returning Scimmia to his ball.

The girl giggled. "Actually, I'm not surprised. To be quite honest, George talks big, but he's really weak." She paused to laugh again. "I'm Haley, and I'll be you're next opponent. And I won't be quite so easy to defeat," she finished with a confident grin.

Ludwig removed his charmeleon's ball from his belt. "We'll see about that," he said.

Haley grabbed one of the two pokeballs dangling from little silver chains on her belt loop, like some kind of stylish charm. "Strong, silent type? I can deal with that. Let's go then, Zubat!" she called, releasing the bat pokemon.

"Now, use ember," Ludwig commanded the second Zubat burst from the ball of white light.

Charmeleon obeyed immediately, releasing a ball of fire much stronger than anything her previous form could have ever produced. The nimble airborne pokemon swooped beneath it, and the fire hit the far wall, bursting apart harmlessly.

"Excellent, Zubat! Now confuse ray!" Haley shouted.

The zubat released an iridescent ball of its own, sending it shooting at Charmeleon. Fortunately, she dodged backwards, and returned with a second ember, which missed.

"Zubat, swoop in for a leech life!"

"Metal claw!"

Zubat shot at Charmeleon, fangs bared. At Ludwig's quick command, Charmeleon readied herself, claws a bright silver, preparing for a fierce counter attack. Haley smirked.

"Zubat!"

Charmeleon swung just as Zubat suddenly opened its wings wide, slowing its descent so much that the metal claw attack missed, and Charmeleon was thrown off balance. Using this to its advantage, Zubat blasted another confuse ray at her, succeeding in hitting her directly in the head.

Ludwig gritted his teeth, furious with himself. It wasn't good that he allowed himself to be fooled by such a juvenile tactic. A good soldier must be sharp, and keep his wits about him at all times. Even if he thinks he knows the enemy's plans, a soldier must proceed with caution, in case something like _this_ happens.

"Ember, go!" Ludwig shouted.

Charmeleon shook her head hard, as if to clear it of conflicting thoughts. She swung around, staring at Ludwig confusedly, not quite understanding him. The confuse ray was a success.

"Attack that zubat!"

That time she understood and turned back to her opponent. The zubat flitted around in her field of vision, sometimes darting forward with a tackle. Most of the attacks she batted away, but a couple landed. The barrage of attacks further confused her, and she finally launched forward with a headbutt.

It would have hit its mark if she had actually aimed properly. The zubat was behind her, and what she thought was an enemy pokemon, in her confused state, was actually a rock.

Haley giggled as Charmeleon slammed headfirst into a rock, causing long cracks to shoot through the boulder. "Silly pokemon, my zubat is behind you. Leech life!" she commanded cheerfully.

Zubat dipped down and sunk its fangs into Charmeleon's neck. The crimson pokemon, which had been attempting to stand, fell to her knees as her energy was drained away. Although she batted the bat away quickly, Ludwig could see that she was fatigued.

This was no good. Even though he was loathe to admit it, his charmeleon was no match for the swift zubat. He needed to switch out.

"Return," he said reluctantly, recalling Charmeleon back into her ball. Hopefully she would sort out her confusion inside. In place of her, he released Scimmia.

"Scratch attack, now," he commanded solemnly. Haley had been right, she was much stronger than George. But he would win, no matter what.

"Dodge it, Zubat, and confuse ray!" Haley called. Her smile had widened as Ludwig was forced to return Charmeleon to her ball.

Zubat managed to dodge the first furious swipe Scimmia aimed, but the second knocked the bat pokemon from the air. It hit the ground hard, bouncing against the same rock that Charmeleon had attacked in her confusion.

"Don't let up, Scimmia. Destroy it," Ludwig said. His fists were clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned white. He was going to win this battle, no matter what.

Scimmia obeyed gladly, pouncing on top of the fallen pokemon, attacking with a succession of wild scratches. The zubat may have been crying out, but whatever sounds it was making were too high pitched for human ears. Not mankey ones, however, and Ludwig could see that what Scimmia was hearing enraged it into an uncontrollable fury.

Haley gasped, her smile transforming into a horrified, open-mouthed gaze. "No, Zubat! Return!" She thrust her pokeball out, the red light shooting out from the center.

Scimmia was nearly completely covering the zubat, however, and the red beam shattered against the mankey's body. The girl's face tightened into a panic. "No! Return, Zubat! Come on! Return!" she screamed, trying again and again to recall her pokemon.

In desperation, she looked over at Ludwig, who was standing with his arms crossed, a satisfied look on his face. "Stop your pokemon! Let me switch out Zubat!" she pleaded.

A corner of Ludwig's mouth tilted up. "Not until this battle is finished," he replied cooly.

Haley looked like she was about to cry. "You're a monster! A brute!" she yelled at him. When he didn't reply, she cried out in frustration. "Fine, I give up! Just stop hurting my pokemon!"

Ludwig obliged, immediately returning Scimmia. Haley ran over to Zubat, throwing herself on her knees by the pokemon.

"Zubat! Are you ok? Zubat?" she was saying, her hands hovering over her pokemon's mangled body, too afraid to touch it lest she hurt it even more.

The pokemon weakly lifted a wing. The tears Haley was holding back dropped freely now. "Oh thank Arceus, you're alive. Don't worry, Zubat. I'll get you to the pokemon center, and you'll be fine!" she said as she recalled Zubat.

She stood as soon as Zubat was safely in its ball, glaring at Ludwig. "You're the worst! I hope Vash crushes you!" she screamed at him, before she sprinted out of the gym.

Ludwig let her words bounce off of him. If she wasn't prepared to lose her pokemon, then she shouldn't have sent it into battle in the first place.

He looked up at the stands. Elise had tears streaming down her face, staring blankly down at the arena. She didn't seem to register that Feliciano had his arms around her, hugging her tightly, his own face buried in her thin shoulder. Ludwig remembered that she had been kidnapped before. Did he remind her of those… those criminals?

No, that was impossible. He was going to one day protect Kanto; he wasn't like those lawless men.

The door swung open yet again. A man with blond hair reaching just down to his chin stepped out. His hard, glaring, emerald eyes were locked onto Ludwig as he exited the back room. He stood opposite of the arena from Ludwig, crossing his arms as he stared over at the larger, blue-eyed trainer.

"I watched your gym battles from the cameras," he said.

"I see," Ludwig replied.

"You're strong."

Ludwig nodded.

"And ruthless."

Ludwig set his jaw. "Anything to win."

Suddenly the man exploded with anger. "You're the worst kind of man! You just fight and fight, never stopping! And if you see a way to get what you want, you'll take it! Even if others are hurt in the process! Just like that vile Team Rocket who hurt my sister!" he shouted.

Ludwig remained silent, glaring back at the man. That was a lie, he wouldn't hurt the people of Kanto, no matter what.

His maintained silence further angered the man. "Don't you have anything to say?" he demanded.

"Like an apology? No."

The man yanked a pokeball from his pocket. "I am Vash Zwingli, leader of the Pewter City Gym. My rock pokemon and I will crush you like the disgusting bug you are," he said.

Ludwig selected Charmeleon again. If he was going up against the gym leader now, it was better to start off with the weaker of the two. "We'll see about that."

Simultaneously, the competitors threw their pokeballs out into the arena. A geodude burst out from Vash's ball as Charmeleon burst from Ludwig's. Vash gave a short laugh. "A fire type against a rock? Not very smart," he said.

Ludwig ignored the jibe. "Metal claw," he commanded.

Charmeleon rushed forward. Before Vash could say anything, she slashed the geodude with brightly glowing claws. They cut deep into even Geodude's rock body, and sent it flying into the opposite wall. Geodude crashed hard, leaving a sizable crater in the wall, and fell to the ground, unconscious.

Ludwig smirked as Vash's jaw dropped. "You were saying something about me not being smart?" he asked.

Vash recovered from his shock. "I was caught off guard. Trust me, it won't happen again. Onyx, tackle!" he called, releasing his pokemon at the same time as giving the command.

Before the white light could even clear, the large rock snake lunged forward, slamming hard into Charmeleon. She was unconscious before she even hit the wall.

"How about that?" Vash said, crossing his arms.

Ludwig shrugged, readying Scimmia's ball. "She was near fainting anyway," he said, nonchalant.

Vash's mouth twisted into a snarl. "You're horrible," he said,

"So you've told me," Ludwig retorted, releasing the mankey. "Scimmia, karate chop."

"Rock throw!" Vash commanded.

Onyx was much too big to dodge Scimmia, but it could always counter the attacks. It's tail wrapped around a sizable boulder, hurling it at the monkey-like pokemon. Fortunately for Ludwig, mankeys were small and nimble like monkeys, as well as having the appearance of them. Scimmia dodged the projectile and landed a solid chop on the rock pokemon's body. A network of cracks spread out in every direction.

Ludwig opened his mouth to command Scimmia to do another karate chop, but Vash shouted out, "Onyx, screech then rock throw!"

The rock type opened its jagged jaw and let loose a terrible screeching sound. Ludwig flinched, resisting the urge to cover his ears with his hands. Even Vash looked like he was in great pain, although he was obviously trying to hide it. In the stands, both Elise and Feliciano shamelessly plugged their ears, hunched forward with eyes shut tight.

Scimmia got the worst of it. With the pokemon's sensitive ears, the screeching must have been almost a physical assault on him. He stood rooted in place, eyes screwed shut and hands flattening his ears against his head. This left him defenseless as Onyx picked up another boulder and hurled it at him. And this time it hit him square on.

The fighting type was knocked back several feet. It was a miracle that he wasn't sent sprawling.

"Scimmia, use karate chop, and don't let up until you break it!" Ludwig said.

As the mankey jumped to obey, Vash glared. "Oh no you don't. Bind it, Onyx, and don't let it escape!" he called.

Scimmia managed to land a single hit when Onyx's body suddenly constricted, wrapping about the mankey so tightly that he couldn't move, let alone free his arms to continue his attack. The irregular edges of Onyx's body jabbed hard into Scimmia. If he didn't pass out from suffocation, then he surely would from the pain.

Ludwig took a deep steadying breath, trying to stem off the building frustration threatening to make him panic. There was still a way he could win this, he knew there was.

"Go, Scimmia! Go Luddy! You can do it!"

Right, Feliciano. This mankey was quite fond of his previous owner. And while Ludwig didn't believe that such a bond actually made a pokemon any stronger than one that lacked the bond, at least it could give the pokemon some motivation to escape and win.

Besides, there was nothing left to try.

"Come on, Scimmia! Escape! Do it for Feliciano! Don't lose this!" Ludwig shouted, feeling almost awkward cheering on the pokemon.

"I know you can do it, Scimmia! Do your best!" Feliciano cheered, jumping around the stands in his excitement.

Amazingly, that did the trick. With both his former trainer and new trainer cheering him on, Scimmia managed to free one of his arms. It wasn't much, but it was enough to give the Onyx a single, hard chop. The rock snake pokemon jerked, suddenly releasing Scimmia as pain shot through its body. Scimmia dropped to the ground, exhausted and a little worse for wear, but still able to battle.

"Don't let it snag you again, Scimmia. Jump onto its body and attack the head!" Ludwig commanded, allowing himself to feel a little thrill that his pokemon managed to escape the binding.

Scimmia clambered up the body, his long, thin fingers easily finding the crevices and footholds in the rock type's body. The bulky pokemon couldn't do anything to stop Scimmia from getting onto its head and unleashing a strong karate chop.

Onyx bucked its head wildly, trying to throw the other pokemon off, but Scimmia held on tightly, refusing to let go. The exertions were wearing on the large pokemon, and still Scimmia remained on top. Literally.

"Ram your head into the wall, Onyx!" Vash yelled.

Ludwig remained silent. Vash must be desperate if he was commanding his pokemon to damage itself in order to hurt Scimmia. And he knew Scimmia wouldn't allow itself to be crushed against the wall. He knew Scimmia would be the victor.

Onyx lurched forward, head bent so as to hit the mankey against the wall with the headbutt. Scimmia held on tightly, and for a frightening moment Ludwig felt that he had thought wrong, and Scimmia really wasn't smart enough to jump out of the way of danger. He didn't see the result, however, as both he and Vash ducked and shielded their eyes as a burst of dust and rocks filled the arena when Onyx hit the wall.

Cautiously, Ludwig lifted his head, looking through the cloud of dust with squinted eyes. There was a silence on the field as everyone watched for the results with bated breath. Did Onyx succeed? Was Scimmia now a mess of mankey jam? Or did he manage to emerge victorious.

The smoke cleared, and there was Onyx. The rock snakes great body was on the ground. The crash had rendered the pokemon unconscious. Scimmia stood atop the onyx, crying out victoriously, beating its chest proudly and doing what could only be described as a victory dance.

Despite his efforts to remain stony, Ludwig couldn't help but feel a great soaring pride fill his chest. His training had paid off. He had won his first gym battle, and he was one step closer to be army-fit.

"Yay! You did it, Luddy! Great job Scimmia! You won, you won!" Feliciano cheered.

Vash returned Onyx to its pokeball, looking grim. "Yes, you won," he admitted reluctantly. He pulled a small object from his pocket and approached Ludwig. When he reached the victorious man, he thrust his fist out to him.

Ludwig held out his hand, and Vash dropped the small Pewter badge into his waiting palm. "Watch yourself on your quest for power. If you get too hungry, I'll make sure you're taken down," Vash warned him.

He removed a small case from his pocket and pinned it neatly to the cushioned lining. "Same to you," he replied, remembering Vash's quest for strength of his own—the reason the man became a gym leader, according to those cashiers at the mart.

Vash let out a humorless snort. "Except I'm working to protect someone dear to me," he said.

Ludwig kept his expression cool and composed. "As am I. All of Kanto," he replied.

Another short laugh. "Right. You've got a lot to learn before you're fit to protect anyone."

To that, Ludwig didn't deign to reply. Instead, he turned and walked out of the gym, pocketing his badge case. Feliciano hurried to follow.

"Bye, Elise~! I'll see you again sometime soon, ok~?" Feliciano called out behind him.

And to everyone's surprise, Elise said, "Goodbye, Feliciano," in the tiniest voice Ludwig had ever heard.

"Elise? You spoke!" Vash was saying as the doors closed behind them.

Ludwig looked down at Feliciano. How could this pathetically weak man get a mute to actually speak to him?

"How did you do that?" he asked, unable to contain his awe.

Feliciano looked up at him bemusedly. "Ve? Do what?"

"Get her to talk. She hasn't spoken at all since she was kidnapped," he said. Well, at least he was sure that was the case. He couldn't see any reason why Vash would be so surprised at her speaking.

Feliciano shrugged, still looking puzzled at Ludwig's astonishment. "Ve, I was just being nice to her. I'm nice to all the pretty ladies," he said, waving Ludwig's question off.

There was definitely something about Feliciano, perhaps something that even the carefree Italian didn't even know about himself. The only thing Ludwig knew was that an innate power like that could be very useful. Not in the battlefield, of course, but perhaps in other critical situations.

Maybe it was worth keeping Feliciano around after all.


	8. Chapter 8

**I can't believe I actually managed to get this up. Internet here has been insane. Me having it now is just pure luck. So yeah. Glad I got it up when I said it would (as of right now, it is Wednesday for me).**

**So yeah, I obviously didn't go off the Mount Moon from the game. Totally made it up.**

**Here we come to a pivotal chapter for Ludwig. Also, keep in mind that Feliciano's pidgey is level 42, and the move Return gets stronger the stronger the bond between pokemon and trainer is. That is all.**

* * *

><p><strong>Ludwig's Party:<br>"Charlotte" (Charmander) – Lvl 15  
>Scimmia (Mankey) – Lvl 12<strong>

**Feliciano's Party:  
>Uccello (Pidgey) – Lvl 42<br>Bella (Pidgey) – Lvl 3**

"Ve, you two did so well~. You beat even really big and strong pokemon, even though you're so tiny," Feliciano praised Ludwig's pokemon.

Ludwig kept his face stoic, even though he felt proud of his pokemon for the win. "Don't praise them too much, or they'll become undisciplined," he warned, crossing his arms.

Feliciano pouted up at him. "You're too serious, Luddy. You just beat the first gym! You have to celebrate!" He sighed heavily. "I wish you let me take my siesta at the pokemon center. We're going to be up all night," he complained.

"We need to get through Mount Moon tonight. So that means leaving immediately," Ludwig replied simply. Feliciano sighed again.

It hadn't even been an hour since Ludwig had beaten Vash in his first gym battle. Already the pair had left Pewter City behind, making their way through the rocky valley right up to the looming Mount Moon—a place known for the moonstones found inside. It was speculated that once it was the site of many meteor crashes, which brought the moonstones with them. Certain pokemon—pokemon thought to be from outer space—could evolve only by using these stones.

Lore aside, it was the fastest way to get from Pewter to Cerulean, to Vermillion, to Lavender, to Celadon. Ludwig hoped to inquire about joining the Kanto army through the police force in Celadon.

After healing his pokemon just after the battle, Ludwig gave into Feliciano's suggestion that their pokemon should be allowed to walk alongside them. Considering the brand new rock badge nestled safely in his platinum badge case, Ludwig felt inclined to agree.

Scimmia had immediately claimed Feliciano, climbing up onto his former trainer's back for a relaxing piggy-back ride. He looked immensely pleased with himself as Feliciano gave him praises upon praises for his amazing battle. Charlotte—charmeleon, Ludwig corrected himself mentally—walked alongside her master, held held high in a dignified manner.

Initially, she had appeared gloomy, and frowned deeply when she was released from her ball, obviously expecting a reprimand of some kind. She was very bothered by the fact that she had allowed herself to be beaten by the onyx. In one hit, too. To her, apparently, it didn't matter that she was almost at her limit anyway. A loss was a loss, and she expected her trainer to feel the same way.

Ludwig said nothing, and simply nodded, a secret smile on his lips from winning. Charmeleon was confused, and tilted her head questioningly up at the man, as if she was wondering if Ludwig was testing her in some way.

But then Feliciano began to exclaim all sorts of praises on her strength and bravery, and all her bewilderment and disappointment evaporated.

So she kept a prideful appearance, alongside Ludwig, soaking up all the praise Feliciano sent her way.

It was slow-going, trying to get to Mount Moon. Something about the way Feliciano stopped every five seconds—he was tired, or he was hungry, or he saw a really pretty lady and just _had_ to talk to her—told Ludwig that distance wasn't the issue here.

"Will you just _stop_ it?" Ludwig demanded after they'd stopped for the fiftieth time for some trivial matter. "Do you want to be trapped in Mount Moon for the entire night?"

Feliciano pouted up at him. "Ve, but Luddy, my shoes are untied," he whined, holding up his foot for him to see.

Ludwig looked down in disbelief. Sure enough, Feliciano's shoe laces were undone. "It's taken you the past five minutes, and you haven't even gotten such a silly thing done?"

"Ve, well…" Feliciano looked down shyly, twiddling his thumbs. "Usually Fratello or nonno helps me."

No way, this guy wasn't serious. Ludwig sighed heavily, feeling frustrated. "Don't tell me… You can't tie shoes, can you?" he asked.

Feliciano giggled nervously, shaking his head. "No, I can't."

Ludwig brought his hands to his face, trying to control his building anger. There was no way someone could be so useless and infuriating. He stayed like that for what felt like a long time, until he heard Feliciano say his name inquiringly. "Luddy…?"

Slowly, Ludwig pulled his hands away, wiping away all traces of frustration from his face in the process. "Fine, I will help you," he said, and knelt down to tie Feliciano's shoe laces.

The carefree man grinned brightly. "Grazie, Luddy! You're the best!" he exclaimed as Ludwig did up the laces within a couple seconds, triple knotting them for good measure.

Finally, they were on their way again, and eventually the great cave opening that lead into Mount Moon was before them. Conveniently, a pokemon center was placed right next to the cave mouth. Feliciano looked longingly at it.

"Ve, are you sure we can't go in, Luddy?" he asked, shifting his weight nervously as he gazed up at the formidable mountain.

Ludwig looked at the red-roofed building as well. Although stopping for the day was tempting, if Feliciano knew the nurse, then it'd be too troublesome. They'd never get going the next day. "Do you know the Nurse Joy in this one as well?" he asked.

Feliciano nodded brightly. "Si~! Katia~! She's really sweet and really pretty~!" he replied.

He sighed. Figures Feliciano would know every Joy in Kanto. "Then no. We'll stop once we get through the mountain," he said.

Ignoring Feliciano's complaints, Ludwig returned his pokemon to their balls and entered the cave without another moment's hesitation.

And immediately regretted it.

As soon as the two stepped into the cave, the pair of pidgeys perched on Feliciano's shoulders as always, a zubat dropped down from the cave's ceiling and attacked them. Both men jumped into action, in completely opposite ways. As Ludwig reached for his charmeleon's pokeball, Feliciano took off running, screaming at the top of his lungs. Additional zubats that had probably been sleeping until then woke up to chase after the intruder, until a huge cloud of zubat trailed in the wake of the fleeing Italian.

Ludwig stared after the mob for a brief moment, not sure whether to be annoyed or worried for his companion. He went with the former, slapping a hand over his eyes.

He released charmeleon. "Let's go make sure Feliciano doesn't die, alright?" he told his pokemon.

Charmeleon nodded her assent and the two went chasing after Feliciano, following the mass of zubats in front of them. Whenever one lagged behind, Charmeleon picked them off with a quick ember. As more zubats joined the chase, and the mob never seemed to get even smaller, Ludwig had the impression that they'd be bringing a whole lot of zubats to Cerulean with them.

A geodude broke the tenium.

As he and his pokemon ran after the mob of zubats, Ludwig didn't see the boulder-like pokemon half-burrowed into the dirt. One moment, he was glaring transfixed at the pack of dark blue bats, and the next moment he was falling through the air.

Ludwig his the ground hard, a cloud of dirt bursting into the air around him. He coughed as he sat up, the dirt settling over his skin. He shivered at all the dirt now covering his entire person. As soon as they got to Cerulean, washing his clothes and his self were the first two orders of business.

He turned around to see an angry geodude glaring right back at him.

"Charmeleon?" he called tentatively.

"Char!" she responded immediately, at his side.

Ludwig smiled. "Excellent." When he fell, she had stopped to investigate what had kept Ludwig from continuing.

He stood up. "A metal claw should do it, don't you think?" he said, brushing himself off as best he could. All this dirt was terrible.

Charmeleon readied herself, staring intently at the wild pokemon. "Char," she agreed, and launched herself forward.

Just as Ludwig predicted, a single attack was enough. The geodude collapsed into the ground, fainted. Ludwig nodded in approval, turning back to the chase.

The cavern ahead was completely empty. Even listening as hard as he could, Ludwig could not even hear Feliciano's cries. His flighty Italian companion and the mob of zubats were long gone.

Ludwig sighed heavily. "Great. Just perfect. How are we going to find them now?" he mumbled to himself.

Charmeleon sighed as well, just as irritated with Feliciano as Ludwig currently was (and how he usually was toward the overly excitable man).

He looked down at her. "I don't suppose you saw where they went?" he asked.

She blinked at him, and then stared forward, considering carefully. After a minute, when Ludwig was about to give up on her, she darted forward, stopping once to allow Ludwig to catch up.

They turned into a cavern and descended a ladder. At the foot of the latter was a small indent, where Feliciano probably fell right down the hole without seeing it in his desperate escape. Luckily, this led to a one-way passage, with a single opening. Even without this, it was obvious where Feliciano was, as his sobbing cries echoed from the opening, bouncing off of the rocky walls, echoing and magnifying.

This was what Ludwig expected. However, he was disturbed by the lack of all other noise. What happened to the zubat mob? Did they all give up? Did Feliciano actually manage to evade them? Something told Ludwig that the latter was not the case.

Suddenly, a feeling of foreboding overtook Ludwig. He slowed to a walk, cautiously approaching the opening. When he finally entered the next area—a large cavern with countless openings—he froze.

There was Feliciano, as Ludwig would have guessed, collapsed on the ground, openly sobbing into his hands. Uccello stood beside his trainer, obviously ready to fend off any dangers that threatened Feliciano. Bella was missing, something Ludwig found odd, but not of great importance. It wasn't Feliciano himself, or Uccello's stance, or Bella's absence, however, that made Ludwig stop in his tracks.

It was what was surrounding Feliciano that shocked and disturbed him all at once.

The bodies of all the zubats that had been pursuing him were scattered all around Feliciano. They were all badly beaten. Occasional twitches told him that all of them were unconscious, and not in any other state.

Ludwig stared, open-mouthed, at the scene. He knew that Feliciano had a very strong pidgey, but he couldn't help but feel a bit amazed at what Feliciano and his pokemon could do when they weren't too busy fleeing from enemies.

He was torn out of his state of amazement when a body suddenly knocked into him. Ludwig just barely managed to maintain his footing as Feliciano locked his arms around his middle, sobbing into his stomach.

"Luddyyyyyyyyy! That was so scarrrrryyyyyyy! And I couldn't run away and I had to fight them and they all got hurt and now they're unconscious and I can't do anything to help them and… and…" Feliciano hiccupped and resorted to wailing something unintelligible.

Ludwig stiffened at the contact, not sure how to react to the hug. Awkwardly, he patted Feliciano on the head. "There… There," he said uncertainly.

By the by, Feliciano finally calmed down, leaving Ludwig with a large wet spot on his shirt and Feliciano only sniffling. The Italian looked around, eyes avoiding the zubat bodies all around as best he could. "Ve, where's Bella?" he asked.

Ludwig shrugged, returning his charmeleon to her ball. No sense in having her out if they were just going to go searching for Feliciano's pokemon. "I suppose we'll have to go look for her," he said.

Looking worried at his pokemon's disappearance, Feliciano nodded and stood up. Uccello returned to his perch on Feliciano's shoulder, looking strangely calm at his "lady-friend's" disappearance.

Luckily, they didn't have to go searching. Just as they began to deliberate which direction to go, they heard a faint, "Pidgey!" come from one of the tunnels. A couple seconds later, Bella appeared. Behind her, a hesitant pair of bright pink pokemon followed. That would explain why Uccello wasn't worried, if she had just gone exploring.

Feliciano smiled brightly. "Bella, you're back! Ve, and you brought friends," he said delightedly, smiling at the pokemon.

The pair took a couple steps back, looking wearily between Feliciano and Ludwig. They clutched each other's hands protectively.

"Ve, look, Luddy! They're like a mommy and daddy!" he exclaimed, jumping up and down in excitement. Then he stopped, frowning. "Where's the baby then?"

"Maybe it was _stolen_!"

The voice was sudden and came out of nowhere. Ludwig stiffened as Feliciano shrieked and leapt behind him, his head swiveling in the direction of the voice.

A man with bright blue eyes (bright for every reason besides apparently intelligence, or at least that's what Ludwig's first impression of the man was) jumped off of the ledge he had been perched on. He landed easily on the ground, and ran a hand through his sandy-brown hair. He grinned at the pair, adjusting his glasses that had gotten knocked askew in the jump.

"Heya, did I scare ya?" he asked, hands on his hips. A raichu joined him shortly after, having scampered down from the same cliff face.

Neither answered, Feliciano cowering behind Ludwig, who stared stonily at the newcomer. The man frowned impatiently when he saw that they weren't about to speak to him.

"Well, ya ain't really talkative, huh?" he said, crossing his arms. "Kinda rude, ya know?"

"Who are you?" Ludwig demanded, not in the mood to deal with another crazy character. Feliciano was a big enough handful for him.

The man gaped at him. "Are ya kidding me? I'm…" He stuck a ridiculous pose. "Alfred F. Jones! Pokemon Ranger extraordinaire. Saving pokemon and people alike with Sparks, my amazing partner!" At the introduction, the raichu struck an equally ridiculous pose as Alfred. Like human, like partner, Ludwig supposed.

"What do you know about this pair of pokemon?" Ludwig asked.

Alfred frowned. "Ya ain't even gonna give me your names? After askin' for mine? Very rude, ya know," he said.

Ludwig sighed. "Fine. I'm Ludwig and this is Feliciano. Now what do you know about these pokemon?"

Alfred rolled his eyes. "Well, I know that they're clefable, and that they're totally aliens from outer space, but that's probably not what ya wanted to know, huh?" he said.

He paused briefly before continuing. "I'm guessin' Feliciano there is right. They're probably parent pokemon. And I saw some suspicious characters earlier. Team Rocket, I believe they're called. If they're around, they could have taken the pokemon egg," he finished.

At Alfred's hypothesis, the clefable pair grew excited, making little exclamations and nodding fervently. Alfred nodded at them. "And I believe that's exactly what happened."

Feliciano gasped. "Oh no! That's horrible! Are you going to help them, Mr. Pokemon Ranger?" he asked.

Alfred sighed, crossing his arms. "I can't. There's no laws against taking pokemon eggs from the wild. Even though there should be," he added darkly. Then he brightened. "But if _you_ happen to steal the egg back, I won't tell anyone."

Before Ludwig could flat-out refuse, Feliciano jumped out from behind him. "Si! We'll do it! Come on Luddy, come on mommy and daddy clefable! Let's go save the egg!" And off he was again, darting right down the same cavern Bella had emerged from.

Alfred grinned at the annoyed look on Ludwig's face. "Guess you've got a mission, now. Good luck! I'll come save ya if they do somethin' illegal. See ya!" he shouted, and jogged down the opposite way.

Ludwig sighed. The ranger was right. He couldn't just leave Feliciano here (although why exactly he felt that way, he didn't know). So he started after Feliciano.

"Hey! Give mommy clefable and daddy clefable their baby back!" Feliciano's voice echoed down the tunnel.

Ludwig took off in a run. Feliciano was going to get flattened going up against Team Rocket, if he wasn't there to help him. Strong pokemon or not. It was one thing to go up against wild pokemon, and another thing entirely to go up against an actually trainer.

"Ha, a puny thing like you thinks you can take this back? Pathetic," a woman's voice huffed.

Ludwig emerged from the tunnel. "No, I know _I _can take you!" he declared, feeling a bit out of breath from all the running he did.

The woman speaking was standing at what looked like the exit of Mount Moon. She cradled a bright pink egg in her arms. Her violet eyes glared daggers at them both, daring them to just _try _and take the egg from her. A purple bow held her straw-colored hair from her pale, almost child-like face. Even her outfit—a uniform-like, steel-grey dress that reached just past her knees and black dress shoes—made her look younger than she actually was.

She gave him a condescending look. "You two think you can beat my brat's carefully trained pokemon?" she asked.

Feliciano tilted his head, puzzled. "Brat? That's not a nice thing to say."

The woman's pale cheeks colored. "Sh—shut up! Brat! It means brother! Idiots! I should destroy you just for that!"

Ludwig grabbed Charmeleon's pokeball. "I'm sure you'll be the one destroyed here," he said.

She laughed. "Ha! Watch you defeat this! Go, Gyarados!" she shouted, sending out the pokeball into the water.

A large dragon-like pokemon burst from the surface of the water with a fierce roar. Ludwig hesitated as the large, snake-like body loomed up out of the water.

Feliciano shrunk back. "Ve, that looks scary, Luddy," he said.

Ludwig steeled himself. "I'll win no matter what," he replied, readying charmeleon's pokeball.

Feliciano looked up at him, shocked. "You can't beat it! Gyarados is a water-type! And flying! Scimmia and Charlotte will get hurt a lot!" he protested.

"Doesn't matter. Someone has to fight. Or did you already give up on helping the clefables?" Ludwig asked. Even if he didn't really care too much for helping every pokemon that crossed his path, it was even worse to decide to do something and then give up on it.

The weaker man looked down, ashamed with himself. He hung his head, clenching his fists. "Y—you're right," he said almost inaudibly.

"Exactly, now stand aside," Ludwig said, ready to send out his pokemon.

Feliciano stopped him, putting his hands on Ludwig's arm. "No," he said.

Ludwig shook Feliciano off. "Stop that. Let me fight," he chided the Italian, irritated.

Feliciano looked up at him, an oddly determined look in his eyes. "No," he repeated. "I'll fight."

"You'll…?" Ludwig stared at Feliciano, unable to register what he was saying. "No, you can't fight. She'll destroy you."

Feliciano smiled a little sadly. "Don't be silly, Luddy. Charlotte is too weak to fight water. Scimmia is too weak to fight flying. Only Uccello can beat it," he said, absolute certainty in his voice.

Ludwig understood that he himself was at a type disadvantage, but… "A pidgey? Against a Gyarados?" It was impossible. There was no way.

He didn't respond to Ludwig's disbelief. Feliciano turned around to face the formidable pokemon. "Let's go, Uccello! I know you can do it!" he cried.

As the pidgey flew forward, the woman laughed sadistically. "A puny bird like that? Ha, obviously you're stupid or something!" she said confidently.

Feliciano stood his ground. "The closer me and Uccello are, the stronger he is!" he declared. Ludwig frowned. Perhaps this wasn't such a good idea, if Feliciano was saying such cheesy things.

The Team Rocket woman rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over the giant red R on her chest. "Stupid. Only weaklings say things like that. Go, Gyarados! Hyper Beam!" she shouted.

The pokemon charged up the beam a ball of bright orange light collecting in the center of its mouth.

"Come on, Uccello! Dodge it!" Feliciano shouted.

Gyarados let loose a fierce hyper beam. Both Ludwig and Feliciano jumped to dodge it as it hit the rock just below their feet. They were knocked further aside by the force of the collision.

Uccello didn't have so much luck. He did his best to roll to dodge it, but the beam just barely skimmed him, knocking the bird pokemon into the ground. "Uccello!" Feliciano cried, worried.

Luckily, the pidgey managed to get up, and both Ludwig and Feliciano sighed in relief. "Great job! Use Return! Show the gyarados what a strong bond can do!" he commanded.

A bright white light gathered around Uccello as he flew into the air. As the brightness intensified, and finally peaked, the pidgey shot at Gyarados, not unlike a glowing bullet. It struck dead center with a very audible smacking sound.

When the light disappeared, there was a deep gash in the pokemon from Uccello's hooked beak. The damage appeared significant, as the Gyarados seemed frozen. Then, slowly, it crashed down into the water.

And entire minute passed, and everyone present stared at the reddening water. No way, it was impossible. There was no way a pokemon as small as a pidgey could beat a fierce pseudo-dragon like Gyarados.

"Return is a move that I taught Uccello myself. The greater our bond, the greater the move. So it's not weak, see Luddy? My pokemon are strong," Feliciano said with a heartbreakingly sorrowful smile. He looked away. "I hope Gyarados is ok…"

The woman snapped out of her shock at the sound of Feliciano's voice. "Brat's pokemon! No! I'll get you for this!" she screamed, returning the pokemon to the pokeball.

Ludwig glared up at the woman. "Return the egg," he demanded. "You lost."

Her upper lip curled into a snarl. "You… Fine! Take the stupid egg! It's useless anyway!" she shouted, throwing the egg with all her might.

"No!" Feliciano screamed, running forward. But it was no good. It was falling too fast, and he was too far away.

"Cleff!" "Clefable!"

The pokemon pair pointed their fingers at their precious egg. A bright blue light surrounded the delicate egg, and slowed its descent enough for Feliciano to reach it. Feliciano cradled the egg in his arms, a soft smile on his lips. "Mi dio," he breathed.

A second later, bright white light surrounded the pair of pokemon, and the clefables were sucked into pokeballs. One. Two. Three shakes and they were caught.

"Mommy clefable! Daddy clefable!" Feliciano gasped, spinning around.

The woman laughed as she ran to retrieve her pokeballs. "Fully evolved pokemon are better than a worthless egg anyway! Just wait. Next time I see you, I'm going to destroy you for what you did to Brat's pokemon!" she swore, and hurried from the cave.

As her wild laughter faded and disappeared, Ludwig and Feliciano stood rooted in place. Ludwig because he could hardly believe the battle he witnessed. Feliciano's eyes were wide and empty. He looked down at the bright pink egg. Separated from its parents.

"I failed." He looked at Ludwig, falling to his knees, tears filling his eyes. "Luddy, I failed! I couldn't bring them all together!"

Feliciano began to cry, clutching the egg to his chest. "I couldn't help them. Even though Uccello did his best. I wasn't good enough," he sobbed, curling into a ball around the egg.

Ludwig didn't say anything. There was nothing to say. He was no good at consoling people. So he stood there, awkwardly watching as the sensitive Italian cried over the orphaned egg.

"We… We're almost in Cerulean," Ludwig said, for lack of anything else to say.

Feliciano didn't respond, remaining as he was. Ludwig looked away, not sure how to deal with these unfamiliar emotions of… What exactly? This twisting in his chest… Was that guilt? And the stone in his throat… Could that actually be… Sympathy?

"We… We'll go after Team Rocket," Ludwig found himself saying automatically. "I'll make sure that this egg is reunited with its parents."

Feliciano looked up at him, a glint of hope in his otherwise dead eyes. "Really?" he asked.

Ludwig could only come up with one answer.

"Ja. No matter what."


End file.
